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DAVID EDWARDS
Calmly and without haste, he knew the answer was trees.
The question - "If you planted the seeds of Quercus Robur, what would grow?" - was the final obstacle between contestant and cheque, and David Edwards became the UK's second £1,000,000 winner, joining Judith Keppel in the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Hall of Fame.
The 53-year-old father of two is no stranger to the hotseat, having won 'Mastermind' - at that point the country's most exacting quiz - in 1990. "He was so cool and had an amazing general knowledge," says host Chris Tarrant, who kept the audience guessing by revealing the three wrong answers first. "We already knew he'd won 'Mastermind' but he's such a modest chap he asked us not to mention it on air."
David faced only one dilemma on his path to the jackpot: at £125,000 he was asked for the real first name of Home Secretary Jack Straw. He first used his phone-a-friend lifeline to ring son Richard, but when he couldn't help, David decided to ask the audience. Still not convinced, he used his 50:50 option before opting for the correct answer, John.
He then went on to answer the next three questions with ease and - to Chris Tarrant's jubilation - become the first man to scoop the top prize. "I feel that what I have won is not just a sum of money, but the time and the freedom to do things that I couldn't do before," David concluded. "This win means so much to me and my family."
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DAVID EDWARDS ASKING HOST CHRIS TARRANT TO PHONE A FRIEND, HIS SON. "HE MAY STILL BE IN BED!""
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SERIES 1
Rachel Mendez-Da-Costa
The physiotherapist from Edgware was on the first ever show. She was the first female contestant, the first rollover contestant - and she provided the first indication that 'Millionaire' was going to be a phenomenal success. The reason? Under the spotlight, Rachel went through every emotion in the book: she laughed, she cried, she trembled and she had Chris Tarrant and most of the audience on the edge of their seats.
Even now, many months later, she still reflects on her experiences with mixed emotions. "It was a wonderful experience, but I'd never do it again," she confides. "It was far too stressful. It was all right on the first night; we got up to ?500 and then ran out of time. My fianc? and I went to bed with the property pages and spent one million in our heads." She laughs, then shudders at the memory of what happened next: "By the second day I was so nervous I was ill," she reveals. "Chris Tarrant had to drag me into the studio. I was clinging onto the banisters saying, 'I can't do it.' And when I did get into the studio, I was shaking so much I couldn't even hold a glass of water."
Yet Rachel did hold her nerves long enough to win £8,000. Not a vast amount of money, yet she proved a vital point. The success of the show was nothing to do with money and everything to do with the attitude and behaviour of the contestants. Rachel's time in the chair was pure theatre. Others may have won more money but she still leads in the field of drama.
Back then no one - Rachel included - knew anything about the show. "It was the very first night and we were basically guinea pigs: nobody knew what to expect," she says. "What I didn't expect was that The Sun would phone up after the show and invite me to live the life of a millionaire for a day. That was fantastic, being a mega-star: stretch limos, evening dresses, champagne. Brilliant fun."
The winnings have enabled her to get onto the property ladder. "I'm incredibly grateful for that. Let's face it, someone gave me £8,000 for doing not very much. And I had a brilliant time as well."
SERIES 2
Fiona Wheeler
"I'm sure they all thought, 'Oh god, that mad woman from Essex got on. They've let her out for the day and now she's got herself on television'." Fiona Wheeler laughs - a sound that has been described as "the noise of a dishwasher corkscrewing down a plughole" - as she reflects on her time with 'Millionaire'.
The most exuberant contestant ever to grace the hot seat, she's also one of the most memorable. In January 1999, the mother of four from Canvey Island screamed her way to £32,000, giving viewers a floor show and the host a nervous breakdown.
"There's never been a better start to a year," she recalls, "but I really didn't think I'd get on. I'd bodged the rehearsal, told myself I was a right dopey cow and talked myself out of ever getting on. Then, when I won Fastest Finger First [at which point Fiona memorably exclaimed "I think I've wet myself!"], I had to go out and have a fag - I was falling to bits. When it was time to go on, Chris was saying "come on, enjoy it", I replied that I couldn't even stand up.
"Chris was fantastic, but he thought I was absolutely mad. I just went bananas. I was screaming and shouting 'Come on! Here we go! What's next?' At one point Chris got up and cuddled me to try to calm me down. I get into the same state over the kids' sports days. That's me, I'm afraid, I'm never going to change. I can rabbit on for England."
The money was not her only luxury, as Wheeler explains. After telling Chris that she would love to bathe in chocolate, the TV Times fulfilled that dream, having her submerged in liquid chocolate with a glass of champagne. "It was fantastic... brilliant. I wallowed in chocolate like a hippo."
For all this self-indulgence, Fiona has a sensible side too, especially when it comes to the winning cheque. "It's not enough to change your life, but it's made it a hell of a lot easier," she admits. "We've paid off our debts, had a couple of holidays, and it's meant that my husband doesn't have to work every weekend to meet the bills. But I saw a financial adviser and invested most of it. I'm not daft."
SERIES 3
Davy Young
Davy's decision to phone the show began as a joke. "I just wondered what you heard when you rang the contestant telephone number," he laughs. "So I answered the question they gave me - I can't remember what it was - and then forgot all about it. When they phoned back a few days later I thought it was a wind-up. They asked me the height, to the nearest foot, of the tallest tree in the world. Well I hadn't a clue, so I hazarded a guess at 273 feet. Turns out I was only a few feet out..."
A civil servant from Belfast, Davy seems to have a habit of hazarding a guess. He changed his mind at the last minute about answering the £32,000 question - and won.
Incredibly, he changed his mind again three questions short of the jackpot and ended up walking away with £125,000, It was an extraordinary performance, but Young appeared completely unfazed by the whole procedure: as the tension increased, so did the volume of his laughter. "But," he says, "I was sweating buckets. That might have been something to do with a hangover. I was a rollover contestant and I thought I'd have a wee drink the night before to calm my nerves. I was still in the hotel bar at three in the morning..."
It was his pragmatic attitude that saw Young through to become one of the joint highest winners. "Well", he explains, "I was just looking at it as a good experience. I mean, I arrived with nothing so it didn't matter if I left with nothing. I was enjoying myself, and to be honest I really didn't know how much money I was going for until the last question."
SERIES 4
Jonathan Green
On September 4, 1999, Jonathan Green became the first person to win £250,000 on a British TV quiz show.
The Safety Sub Fire Officer was just two questions away from the big £1million payout when he called on his friend Noel Diacono to help him answer question 13. "The only person I knew I needed on my side was Noel because of his good grasp of general knowledge," he recalls.
The question was: "What creatures live in a formicary"? Noel knew that the Latin stem for ant is 'form' and so was fairly confident that 'ants' was the correct answer.
Jonathan went on to attempt the £500,000 question ("Which of these Queens did Henry VIII refer to as his 'Flanders Mare'?" Answer: "Anne of Cleves"). Unsure of the answer, Jonathan asked the audience and, while the majority did in fact choose the correct answer, he was not prepared to risk losing £218,000. "I wish I could have called Noel too," he confided afterwards, "but I had to chicken out on that one.
"Even now I can't remember what I was going through," he adds. "My heart was pounding and the tension was just unbelievable, but I still think I did the right thing." Host Chris Tarrant recalls: "The atmosphere was electric, it was a real buzz. The show had been going on for a year and it was a great way to mark the anniversary."
SERIES 5
Bernard Marco
Bernard Marco, a 75-year-old from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is a retired betting shop manager. He won £64,000 on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'.
He came on to the show with wife Mavis supporting him in the audience. Bernard affectionately refers to Mavis as 'Head Office'. With his winnings, Bernard intended to buy a diamond wedding ring for her, which he hadn't been able to afford when they first got married. The couple also planned to visit their twin grandchildren in Illinois.
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 1999
Jim Barwick
Jim Barwick won £125,000 on Christmas Day, 1999. For many years, the 38-year-old held down two jobs, as a garage manager and taxi driver, just to pay the bills.
With wife Hazel in the audience, Barwick, from Beckenham in Kent, claimed he was terrified of gambling the £64,000 he had already won, as he had promised Hazel he wouldn't chance it if he got to £64,000.
The winnings meant Hazel could give up her job as a childminder, and Jim admitted much of the cash would be spent on their three children.
SERIES 6
Peter Lee
The rollover from show two, Peter Lee will go down in history as the first quiz show contestant to win £500,000 and the first to ever see the previously elusive £1 million question.
Lee, from Cardigan in Wales, admits it still hasn't sunk in and that he has to keep looking at the cheque to make sure it's real. Unfortunately, the final question proved a hurdle too far for the 65-year-old retired naval officer.
Peter took wife Sue to see their sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. "I never had a strategy," Peter admitted afterwards. "I just wanted to get on the programme. After that I just took each question as it came. Never, not in a million years did I think I would walk away half a million pounds richer."
SERIES 7
Jim Titmuss
Jim Titmuss, a computer analyst from North London, had the whole nation screaming "NO!" at the television as he gave the wrong answer to the £250,000 question "Where was Dick Turpin hanged?"
Jim confidently plumped for Carlisle instead of York and lost £93,000. "I honestly thought I knew the answer but obviously I was wrong," Jim reflected afterwards. "I know £93,000 is a ridiculous sum of money to lose but don't forget I still went home with £32,000 - that's a huge amount of money to me and my wife."
SERIES 8
Judith Keppel
On November 20, 2000, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' made history by crowning its first millionaire.
Judith Keppel worked her way through 14 questions before securing the seven-figure cheque for telling the nation that Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry II.
The garden designer from Fulham in London kept her cool throughout, saying that she actually got calmer as the money went up - which is more than can be said for the man asking her the questions.
Keppel became an overnight celebrity after her win and is now getting used to being stopped in the street and congratulated. She says she has really enjoyed her celebrity status but thinks her children would prefer their mother to step back out of the limelight now.
She is yet to spend most of the winnings, but is determined to travel and make a donation to a wildlife charity supported by her daughter.
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