Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (British game show)


Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show, created and formerly produced by David Briggs, and made for the ITV network. On air since September 1998 and devised by Briggs, the show's format sees contestants taking on multiple-choice questions based upon general knowledge, winning a cash prize for each question they answer correctly, with the amount offered increasing as they take on more difficult questions. To assist each contestant who takes part, they are given lifelines to use, may walk away with the money they already have won if they wish not to risk answering a question, and are provided with a safety net that gives them a guaranteed cash prize if they give an incorrect answer, provided they reach a specific milestone in the quiz.
The original series aired for 30 series and aired a total of 592 episodes, from 4 September 1998 to 11 February 2014, and was presented by Chris Tarrant. Over the course of its initial run, the show had five contestants achieve the ultimate aim and walk away with the cash prize of £1 million. The original format of the programme was tweaked in later years; this included changing the number of questions from fifteen to twelve, altering the payout structure and later incorporating a time limit which included an attainable fourth lifeline. There were several controversies during its run, including an attempt by a contestant to defraud the show of its top prize.
Four years after the original series ended, ITV announced that the series would be revived, this time produced by Stellify Media, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the programme. The revival was based closely on the show’s original format. It was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and filmed at Dock10 studios. The success of the revival series has ensured that subsequent series of the show have been commissioned, and in January 2019 the show reached the milestone of 600 episodes since first appearing on air.
The game show became one of the most significant shows in British popular culture, ranking 23rd in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute. It was the highest quiz programme to appear on the list. Its success led to versions in many other countries under an international franchise of the same name, all of which follow the same general format, though with some versions including unique differences in gameplay and lifelines provided.

History

Creation

The creation of the game show was led by David Briggs, assisted by Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight, who had helped him before with creating a number of promotional games for Chris Tarrant's morning show on Capital FM radio. The basic premise for the show was a twist on the conventional game-show genre of the time: the programme would have just one contestant answering questions; they would be allowed to pull out at any time, even after they had seen the question and the possible answers; and they had three opportunities to receive special forms of assistance.
During the design phase, the show was given the working title of "Cash Mountain", before Briggs decided upon using the name of the song written by Cole Porter for the 1956 film High Society, as the show's finalised title. After presenting their idea to ITV, the broadcaster gave the green light for production to begin on a series.
The set designed for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was conceived by British production designer Andy Walmsley, who focused the design towards making contestants feel uncomfortable, creating an atmosphere of tension similar to a movie thriller. The design was in stark contrast to the design of sets made for more typical game shows, which are designed to make contestants feel more at ease. Walmsley's design feature a central stage made primarily with Plexiglas, with a huge dish underneath covered in mirror paper, onto which two slightly-modified, -high Pietranera Arco All chairs were chosen for use by both the contestant and the host, each having an LG computer monitor directly facing each that would be used to display questions and other pertinent information. The rest of the set featured seating spaced out around the main stage in a circle, with breaks in them to allow movement of people on and off the set. The lighting rig used for the set was designed so as to allow not only the lights to switch from illuminating the entire set, to focusing on the host and contestant on the main stage when a game was underway, but to include special lighting effects when the contestant reached higher cash prize amounts. His overall conception would eventually prove to be a success, becoming one of the most reproduced scenic designs in television history.
The music provided for the show was composed by father-and-son duo Keith and Matthew Strachan. The Strachans' composition for the game show helped with Briggs' tense game design, by providing the necessary drama and tension. Unlike other game show musical scores, the music provided for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was designed to be played throughout the entire episode of the show. The Strachans main theme for the game show was inspired from the "Mars" movement of Gustav Holst's The Planets. For the main game of the show, the pair designed the music to feature three variations, with the second and third compositions focused on emphasising the increased tension of the game – as a contestant made progress to higher cash amounts, the pitch of the music was increased by a semitone for each subsequent question. On Game Show Network's Gameshow Hall of Fame special, the narrator described the Strachan tracks as "mimicking the sound of a beating heart", and stated that as the contestant works their way up the money ladder, the music is "perfectly in tune with their ever-increasing pulse".

Original series (1998–2014)

With the show created, ITV assigned Chris Tarrant as its host, and set its premiere to 4 September 1998. The programme was assigned a timeslot of one hour, to provide room for three commercial breaks, with episodes produced by UK production company Celador. Originally, the show was broadcast on successive evenings for around ten days, before the network modified its broadcast schedule in autumn 2000 to air it within a primetime slot on Saturday evenings, with occasional broadcasts on Tuesday evenings. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? proved a ratings hit, pulling in average viewing figures of up to 19 million during its broadcast in 1999, though such figures often occurred when the programme was allocated to a half-hour timeslot. By September 2000 viewing figures had dropped to 11.1 million viewers, and by 2003 to an average of around 8 million viewers. Audiences continued to drop and from 2005 to 2011 the show usually attracted between 3 and 4 million viewers. At one point in September 1999, an episode had 60% of the TV share and caused the BBC an historic low in ratings. Over the course of his time presenting the game show, Tarrant developed a number of notable catchphrases. Notable ones include "Audience, all on your keypads please. All Vote Now!" said when the 'Ask the Audience' lifeline is used; "Is that your final answer?", often said to confirm the contestants answer choice and "But we don't want to give you that", when displaying the contestant current winning cheque, to urge them on to win more money.
Since its launch, several individuals made claims over the origins of the format or elements of it, with each accusing Celador of breaching their copyrights. In three cases, the matters could not be proven by the claimants – in 2002, Mike Bull, a Southampton-based journalist, was given an out-of-court settlement when he claimed the authorship of lifelines was his work, though with a confidentiality clause attached; in 2003, Sydney resident John J. Leonard made claims in that the show's format was based on one he had made of a similar nature, but without the concept of lifelines; in 2004, Alan Melville was given an out-of-court settlement after he claimed that the opening phrase "Who wants to be a millionaire?" had been taken from a document he sent to Granada Television, concerning his idea for a game show based on the lottery.
One of most significant claims Celador received against them was from John Bachini. In 2002, he started legal proceedings against the production company, ITV, and five individuals who had claimed they had created Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, stating that the idea from the show was taken from several elements he had created – a board game format he conceived in 1981; a two-page TV format, known as Millionaire, made in 1987; and the telephone mechanics for a TV concept he created in 1989, BT Lottery. In his claim, Bachini stated that he submitted documents for his TV concepts to Paul Smith, from a sister company of Celador's, in March 1995 and again in January 1996, and to Claudia Rosencrantz of ITV, also in January 1996, accusing both of using roughly 90% of the format for Millionaire in the pilot for the game show, including the use of twenty questions, lifelines and safety nets, although the lifelines were conceived under different names – Bachini claimed that he never coined the phrase "phone-a-friend" that Briggs designed in his format. In response to this claim, Celador made a counter-claim that the franchise originated from the basic format idea conceived by Briggs. The defendants in the claim took Bachini to a summary hearing but lost their right to have his claim dismissed. Although Bachini won the right to go to trial, he was unable to after the hearing due to serious illness. Celador eventually settled the matter with him out-of-court.
In March 2006, Celador began procedures to sell the format of the show and all UK episodes, as part of their first step towards the sale of their formats divisions. The purchase of both assets was made by Dutch company 2waytraffic, which were then passed on to Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2008 when it acquired 2waytraffic. As the original series progressed, variations of the format were created, and screened as special episodes, including celebrity editions, games featuring couples as contestants, and episodes themed around special events such as Mother's Day.
The Christmas Eve celebrity special from December 2010 drew its biggest audience since 2006. To capitalise on this, and breathe new life into the now 12-year-old show, from April 2011 only celebrity contestants appeared on the show, in special live editions that coincided with holidays, events and other notable moments, such as the end of a school term. However, in 2012, three special episodes, entitled "The People Play", were broadcast for three consecutive nights between 9 and 11 July. They featured standard contestants, with viewers at home allowed to play along. The special was used three more times in 2013, once on 7 May, and twice more on 21 May, before the special's format was discontinued.
On 22 October 2013, Tarrant announced that, after fifteen years of hosting the programme, he would be leaving Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which consequently led ITV to axe the programme once his contract was finished; no more specials would be filmed after this announcement, leaving only those made before it to be aired as the final episodes. After a few more celebrity editions of the game show, Tarrant hosted his final episode, a clip show entitled "Chris' Final Answer", which aired on 11 February 2014.

Revival (2018–present)

In 2018, ITV revived the show for a new series, as part of its 20th anniversary commemorations of the programme. On 23 February, the broadcast put out a casting call for contestants who would appear on the game show. On 9 March, Jeremy Clarkson was confirmed as the new host of the show. On 13 April, the trailer for the revival premiered on ITV and confirmed that the show would return in May for a week-long run. Shows aired from 5 May to 11 May and were filmed in Studio HQ2 at dock10 studios in Greater Manchester. The first episode drew an average of 5.06 million viewers, a 29.7% TV share.
ITV renewed the show for another series, with Clarkson returning as host. It aired for 6 episodes from 1 to 6 January 2019. The second half of the second series began on 4 March 2019 with 5 episodes. The third series began on 24 August 2019 with 11 episodes with the episodes airing like the old format once weekly. ITV then renewed a fourth series for a celebrity edition of the show, with Clarkson returning as host and showing 4 episodes airing on 25 December 2019,, 4 January 2020, 5 January and 12 April. This series continued for 6 episodes with regular contestants on 10 May 2020. In July 2020, it was announced that the show would return for the Fifth Series in Autumn 2020. However due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there would be no live studio audience and subsequently, the Ask the Audience lifeline would be scrapped and replaced for a second Phone A Friend Lifeline, giving a chance for the contestant to phone 2 different friends.

Top prize winners

Over the course of the programme's broadcast history, it has had five winners who received its top prize of £1 million. They are:

Auditioning

During the original run, members of the public who wished to apply for the game show were provided with four options to choose from – calling/texting a premium-rate number; submitting an application via the show's ITV website, using a system of £1 ‘credits’, or taking part in a casting audition, which were held at various locations around the UK. Once an application was made, production staff selected an episode's contestants through a combination of random selection, and a potential contestant's ability to answer a set of test questions based on general knowledge.

Game rules

Once contestants auditioned for a part on the programme and filming took place, they undertook a preliminary round entitled "Fastest Finger First". Initially, the round required contestants to provide the correct answer to a question, but from series 2 onwards, they were tasked with putting four answers in the correct order stated within the question. The contestant who answered the question correctly, and in the fastest time, won the opportunity to play the main game. In the event that no one answered the question correctly, a new question was asked, while if two or more contestants gave the correct answer in the same time, there was a tiebreaker question to determine who proceeded to the main game. The round was primarily used to determine the next contestant for the main game, and was more often than not used more than once in an episode.
Upon completion of the preliminary round, the contestant began the main game, tackling a series of increasingly difficult questions, which offered progressively higher sums of money, up to the top prize of £1,000,000. The stacks of 15 questions were randomly chosen from a list of pre generated questions based on general knowledge. For each question there were four options to choose from, labelled ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’. During the game, contestants were allowed to use a set of 3 lifelines to help them with a question at any time, and two monetary safety nets were provided: if a contestant got a question wrong, but had reached a designated cash value during their game, they left with that amount as their prize. If a contestant was unsure about a question they were facing, they were allowed to leave the game at that point with the cash amount they had already won. While the initial questions were typically generally easy, the subsequent ones after it required the contestant to confirm that their answer/decision is final, at which point it became locked in and could not be reversed. As a rule, host Tarrant was not shown the correct answer on his monitor until a contestant had given their final answer. If an episode had reached the end of its allotted time, an audio cue was triggered to highlight this; contestants who were still playing the main game were left to wait until filming for the next episode began before they could continue, though this was not the case for special editions of the show, such as celebrity episodes.
Over the course of the show's history on British television, the format of the programme has been altered in a number of aspects, mainly towards the setup of questions and the payout structure used in the game show, along with minor tweaks and changes in other aspects:
During a contestant's game, they may make use of a set of lifelines to assist them on a question. Each lifeline may only be used once. Throughout the course of the show's history, these lifelines involve the following:

Main series

Specials

On 23 October 2004 the show included a new feature called the "Walkaway Text Game". The competition was offered to viewers at home to play the text game where they had to answer the question, if a contestant decided to walk home with the cash prize they have got, by choosing the letters 'A, B, C or D' within 30 seconds to a specific mobile number. The viewer who answered the question won £1,000 by having their entries selected randomly.
On 9 September 2006, there were some changes. The competition stayed the same but this time, they played it before some commercial breaks. A question to which the contestant had given their final answer, but the correct answer had not yet been revealed, was offered as a competition to viewers. Entry was via SMS text message at a cost of £1 per entry, and the competition ran through the commercial break, after which the answer was revealed and the game continued. One viewer who answered the question correctly won £1,000. The text game ended on 28 July 2007.

Controversies

Incorrect answer to question accepted

On 8 March 1999, contestant Tony Kennedy reached the £64,000 question. He was asked "Theoretically, what is the minimum number of strokes with which a tennis player can win a set?", and given four possible answers – twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six, and forty-eight. Kennedy, who calculated that a player would need four shots to win a game, with six games in a set, answered twenty-four, and was told the answer was correct.
However, the right answer was actually twelve and viewers quickly phoned up the show to complain. One such viewer, Robert Steadman, explained to The Irish Times:
The production staff acknowledged the mistake and apologised for it, but allowed Kennedy to keep his prize money.

Schedule rigging allegation

When Judith Keppel's victory as the first UK jackpot winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was announced by ITV on the day of that the corresponding episode was to be broadcast, several allegations were made that Celador had rigged the show to spoil the BBC's expected high ratings for the finale of One Foot in the Grave. Richard Wilson, the lead star on the sitcom, was quoted in particular for saying that the broadcaster had "planned" the win, adding "it seems a bit unfair to take the audience away from Victor's last moments on earth." David Renwick, writer of the sitcom, voiced annoyance that the episode would draw away interest from the sitcom's finale, believing that a leaked press release on ITV's announcement had been "naked opportunism", and it "would have been more honourable to let the show go out in the normal way", pointing out that it "killed off any element of tension or surprise in their own programme", but that "television is all about ratings". Richard Webber's account, in his 2006 book, cites "unnamed BBC sources" as those who "questioned the authenticity of Keppel's victory". The allegations, in turn, led to eleven viewers making complaints against the quiz show, of a similar nature, to the Independent Television Commission.
In response, ITV expressed distress at the allegations, claiming that it "undermined viewers' faith in the programme." Leslie Hill, the chairman of ITV, wrote to Sir Christopher Bland, the chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC, to complain about the issue. The corporation apologised, saying that any suggestion of 'rigging' "did not represent the official view of the BBC", while the ITC's investigation cleared the programme of any wrongdoing.

Ambiguous question

On 11 February 2006, celebrity couple Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and his wife Jackie took on the game show to raise money for their chosen charity – The Shooting Star Children's Hospice. Having reached the final question of the quiz, they were asked "Translated from the Latin, what is the motto of the United States?", to which the Bowens answered with "In God We Trust", only to learn that the question's correct answer was "One Out of Many" – the English translation for the Latin E pluribus unum. However, Celador later admitted that the question had been ambiguous and not fair to the pair – although E pluribus unum is considered the de facto motto of the United States, it was never legally declared as such; In God We Trust is the official motto of the country since 1956, although it is not translated from any form of Latin. Following this revelation, the production company invited the Bowens back to tackle a new question, with their original winnings reinstated; the couple chose not to risk the new question, and left with £500,000 for their charity.

Ingram cheating scandal

In September 2001, British Army Major Charles Ingram became a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, alongside college lecturer Tecwen Whittock and with Ingram's wife Diana in the audience. After the first day of filming, the group devised a scheme that would allow Ingram to win the £1 million cash prize when he returned for the second day of recording, on 10 September – for each question he faced, the correct answer would be signalled to Ingram by a cough made by Whittock; Ingram would differentiate the way he received this to avoid making the scheme too obvious, such as reading aloud all four answers, or dismissing an answer and then choosing it again later. Although the scheme proved successful, by the time he had reached the final questions, production staff off-stage had become suspicious over the amount of background noise being made by Whittock's coughing, while noting that Ingram seemed to show no specialist knowledge of any subjects he faced with each question.
After the second day of recording ended, the production staff ordered an immediate investigation on the grounds that cheating had occurred, suspending the broadcast of both episodes that had been filmed. Ingram was subsequently informed that he was being investigated for cheating and would not receive his winnings. While reviewing the recording, production staff began to see a pattern between Whittock's coughing, and Ingram's unusual behaviour when he answered questions; at one point, they noticed Ingram gave an answer when Diana had coughed after he read it aloud. By this point, production company Celador was convinced that cheating had occurred, and the matter was handed over to police. Both the Ingrams and Whittock were charged with "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception", and taken to Southwark Crown Court in 2003.
During the four-week long trial, the Prosecution provided evidence towards the charges, which included a recording of Ingram's second day on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, pager telephone records for a previous scheme the group intended to use, before deeming it too complicated – a system of four pagers intended to be hidden on Ingram's body, in which a pager's vibrations signalled the correct answer – and testimony from one of the production staff and a "Fastest Finger" contestant attending the recording, Larry Whitehurst. Although the Defence provided evidence claiming Whittock's coughing was a result of dust allergies and a hay fever he was suffering from, and Whittock himself testified against the accusations, the Prosecution refuted these claims with their evidence, including footage that showed Whittock stopped coughing when he became a contestant after Ingram. On 7 April 2003, the group were found guilty, with all three given suspended prison sentences and fines, with the Ingrams later ordered to pay legal costs within two months of the trial's conclusion. On 24 July 2003, the British Army ordered Charles Ingram to resign his commission as a Major, in the wake of the trial.
In the aftermath of the trial, the scandal became the subject of an ITV documentary entitled Millionaire: A Major Fraud presented by Martin Bashir and broadcast on 21 April 2003, with a follow-up two weeks later entitled Millionaire: The Final Answer. The documentary featured excerpts from the recording that had been enhanced for the Ingrams' trial, footage of the actions made by Ingram's wife in the audience, and interviews with production staff and some of the contestants who had been present during the recording. None of the defendants in the case took part, with Ingram later describing Major Fraud and a subsequent programme of the matter, shown on ITV2, as "one of the greatest TV editing con tricks in history". Chess grandmaster James Plaskett later wrote an essay arguing in favour of the group's innocence; journalists Bob Woffinden, and Jon Ronson, each wrote a piece influenced by this essay, with Woffinden collaborating with Plaskett on a book entitled Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major, published in 2015, arguing that Ingram's appearance on the show coinciding with Whittock's was "chance". A play based upon the events of the scandal was written by James Graham, entitled Quiz, and was performed from 3 November 2017 to 9 December 2017, before being performed in the West End from 31 March 2018 to 16 June 2018. Following the success of the play's West End run, ITV commissioned a three-part adaptation of the same name starring Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford as the Ingrams, which aired over three nights between April 13–15, 2020.

The Syndicate

The Phone-a-Friend lifeline provided multiple instances of controversy during the show's run. In March 2007 various UK newspapers reported that an organised syndicate had been getting quiz enthusiasts onto the show in return for a percentage of their winnings. The person behind the syndicate was Keith Burgess from Northern Ireland. Burgess admitted to helping around 200 contestants to appear on the show since 1999; he estimates those contestants to have won around £5,000,000. The show producers are believed to have been aware of this operation, with Burgess stating: "The show knows about me and these types of syndicates, but they cover it up to keep the show going."
An earlier version of a Phone a Friend syndicate was reported in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo during 2003. Paul Smith, the managing director of Celador Productions, stated: "We are aware of Paddy Spooner and what people similar to him are doing, and we have made a priority of changing our question procedure. We are confident we have now made it impossible for anyone to manipulate the system." Since then, the options of people that can be called have a picture of themselves shown on-air. During the 2010–14 era and with the show's relaunch in 2018, every person listed as a friend who might be called had a person from the production company present to video their actions.
In April 2020 the Daily Mirror provided more up-to-date details on how the syndicate run by Keith Burgess and Paddy Spooner had operated. Burgess admitted to getting five people on to the show within one hour.

Filming locations

Since airing in September 1998, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has been filmed at 3 locations throughout its 21-year run. It was first filmed at the now-defunct Fountain Studios in London from its inception until the end of the third series which aired in March 1999. It then moved to Elstree Studios in nearby Hertfordshire, in preparation for series 4, which aired in September 1999. Elstree was then home of Millionaire until the end of its initial run in February 2014. For the show’s revival in 2018 and all subsequent episodes, filming moved to dock10 studios in Salford.