Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK version)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show that offered a maximum cash prize of one million pounds for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty.

The UK version of the show was the country of origin that set the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise. The first episode was aired on 4 September, 1998 and the last ever episode was broadcasted on 11 February 2014. Throughout its history, the show has been presented by Chris Tarrant, who is renowned for his quizzical facial expressions that don't give away the answer at all.

Original 'Ten Night' Experiment
Originally, the show was set up for a ten night series, that involved the public being able to play by picking up the phone and dialing 0891 44 44 44 and answering a question. Then randomly the computer will pick 100 and then the 10 that answer another question correctly will go through. The show proved to be popular so came back for a real series soon after.

Fastest Finger First
10 new contestants are introduced each night after a previous Hot Seat contestant exits. In the first series, after the introductions, the contestants are asked a multiple choice question similar to those given to Hot Seat contestants, and must enter the correct answer on their keypad within 20 seconds. After the time is up, The computer will then give the correct answer, check who got it right, and flash the player who got it in the fastest time; that player advances to the Hot Seat. From the second series until the show's end, the format changed to the version that soon spread to all other versions around the world: The 10 contestants are given a question and four answers, and must put those answers in the correct order, within 20 seconds. After the time is up, the computer will then give the correct order, check who got it right, and flash the player who got it in the fastest time; that player advances to the Hot Seat as before.

Money tree
This is the second and final money tree introduced in 2007 until 2014, and features 12 questions: Notice that the original had 15 questions between 1998 and 2007, and went like this: In both cases, the values are not cumulative; for example; if the contestant answers the first 2 questions correctly, he or she wins £200, not £300 (i.e. £100 + £200).

Lifelines
There were 3 lifelines available to all contestants prior to the 2010 Clock version, when a fourth was introduced. Some celebrity specials also gave a fourth lifeline, and a few of the 'milestone' shows.
 * 50:50: The computer eliminates two incorrect answers, leaving one incorrect answer and the correct answer.
 * Phone-a-Friend: The contestant calls one of up to 3 friends, who provided their phone numbers in advance. The contestant has 30 seconds to read the question and answer choices to the friend, who then has the remaining time to offer input.
 * Ask The Audience: Audience members use touch pads to designate what they believe the correct answer to be. The audience choosing each specific option is displayed to the contestant.
 * Switch (2002-2003, 2010–2014): Only becomes available when a contestant reaches £50,000. A contestant may swap their question for a different one. This was used back in 2002 and 2003 when a contestant gets rid of a lifeline. A "Q" symbol will appear on the selected lifeline, therefore, the selected lifeline can't be used again.

The IT Crowd

 * In the third episode "Fifty-Fifty", Daniel Carey was a contestant on the show. But, not physically shown in the episode.

The Jonathan Ross Show

 * In an episode of the show with Jonathan Ross as host and Chris Tarrant as contestant parody was shown.

Kelly
In episode on 22nd November 2001, Gerry Kelly, a host of a UTV talk show Kelly (1989-2005) appeared in a 'special' edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with Chris Tarrant (without the studio audience), who also appears as a guest on the chat show. This episode was broadcast shortly after it was revealed that criminal proceedings had started against Charles Ingram, who won £1,000,000 by cheating. Mr. Kelly walked away with £32,000, answering the 14th question wrong.

Contestants
See: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK version)/List of Contestants

Trivia

 * The old issues of the game are still being repeated on the "Challenge" channel, and for a while ITV1 also broadcast interesting moments from the old issues of English and foreign versions in the program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Classic.
 * The oldest participant is 75 years old (Bernard Marco, November 11, 1999), and the youngest is 18 (Michelle McGeachy, March 5, 1999). The average age of the participant is 41 years. The most frequently played participants were named John, the participants - with the name Ann.
 * The average result in the qualifying round is 6.41 seconds.
 * The total winnings are almost £60,000,000. The average total winnings for the release are £114,238, the average winner is £50,200, the average male player win is £49,600, the average winnings of the female player is £48,500.
 * The biggest loss in the game is £218,000 (Duncan Bickley and Rob Mitchell).
 * The biggest loss of the famous pair is £468,000 (Laurence and Jackie Llewellyn Bowen). After that, the host again called them into the studio, where they heard the last question for the second time and eventually took £500,000.
 * The total duration of the program is 10 days 8 hours 30 minutes (September 4, 1998 - February 11, 2014), if you watch it continuously.
 * The show was also appeared by contestants with the same names and surnames: 1st Martin Smith on March 6, 1999 and 2nd Martin Smith on March 13, 1999.
 * The most "expensive" season was the season of 2000, where £7,782,000 was won.
 * The total number of players in the history of the game is 1,840 people (in the hotseat - 402).
 * The smallest prize the player has taken is only £500 (Cheryl Turner and originally Sheridan Booth).
 * The fastest player in the qualifying round was Jonathan Pash (aired on April 15, 2008), who managed to press the keys in just 0.97 seconds.
 * Charles Ingram is infamous as being the only player who was caught in deception and deliberate cheating. Thanks to the walkie-talkie and the fan in the studio, who coughed the right number of times on each question, he won £1 million.
 * The most widely watched release in the 20th century was the release on March 7, 1999, which was watched by 19 210 000 people (2nd place in the ITV weekly rating), and in the 21st century - release on January 19, 2000 (15.880.000 spectators, 4th place in ITV rating).
 * November 30, 2002 was shown the 300th anniversary issue live. While the players were helping the Hall's help, viewers were also given the opportunity to correctly answer this question: for each of the four answers, a phone number was provided so that the viewer could give the answer that he thinks is right by calling the appropriate phone number.
 * In the editions of September 27, 2003 and February 25, 2006, there were two cases in the history of the game, when after taking the participant's Ask the Audience lifeline, 100% of the audience voted for one answer.
 * On March 31, 2007 episode only the right order was ABCD.
 * In 2008 fortuneteller predicted that Richard Ronaldson (appeared on November 18 and December 2, 2008) at the age of 35 will become a Top Prize winner, but her prophecy did not come true. He won £10,000.
 * In the July 18, 2009 issue, there was an unusual case: Gill O'Donnell took advantage of the Ask the Audience after 50:50, but 81% of the audience answered incorrectly, and the participant lost.
 * December 23, 2010 was shown the Christmas edition of the game. The game was live and the audience had the opportunity to win up to £500,000, answering the question correctly by phone (release review).
 * From December 6, 2011 to 2014 on the channel "Questions and Answers" were issues of 2007-2010 with the Russian translation, including the entire 13 season (with a timer).
 * On July 10, 2012 during the game of Donna Hearnden, the "Ask the Audience" failed to work (A - 0%, B - 0%, C - 0%, D - 0%), as a result of which Chris Tarrant asked the audience to pick up pre-prepared tablets with the letter of the correct, in their opinion, answer. Most raised the plate with the correct answer.
 * This also happened on November 9, 2012 on Joe Pasquale & Phil Tufnell's £10,000 question.
 * Ironically, it happened on both £10,000 questions.
 * October 1, 2000 the 100th issue was aired, October 11, 2001 - the 200th edition, on November 30, 2002 - the 300th edition, on March 19, 2005 - the 400th issue and on March 18, 2008 - the 500th edition.