Sir Stephen Fry has spoken of his “delight” at winning £250,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? following host Jeremy Clarkson helping him on one question during a celebrity version of the series.
The ITV show, which was originally hosted by Chris Tarrant, introduced a lifeline called “ask the host” when it was revived in 2018 with Clarkson as the presenter.
Former QI host, actor and comedian Sir Stephen also consulted with Pointless star and author Richard Osman on the £500,000 question, by using his phone a friend lifeline.
Clarkson called it the “biggest celebrity win since I started (on) this show”, and called it a “whopping win”, after Sir Stephen decided to walk way with £250,000.
For the half-a-million-pound question, Sir Stephen was asked what the longest gap was between the original version and the cover version of a song, but quiz host Osman failed to help him.
“I am delighted and I am not complaining at all,” Sir Stephen said. “It was extremely good fun. The time goes so quickly.”
Last time he was on the show, Sir Stephen won £125,000 for two charities when he appeared alongside TV cook Nigella Lawson in 2005.
On receiving help from host Clarkson for the question where he was asked which European city out of Brussels, Strasbourg, Munich and Luxembourg City would you come closest to if you walked a straight line from Paris to Berlin, Sir Stephen said: “Jeremy is very encouraging, and he was great with the question that took me to a quarter of a million.
“It was a geographical question, and you had to work it out. Jeremy has travelled so much, particularly in the area that the question was about.
“He and I kind of agreed that it was one of two answers, and I thought ‘I am going to risk it’, and fortunately, it was right.
“This lifeline is a tremendous addition to the show. If Jeremy doesn’t know, he will say but he will take you through the thinking and it slows things down. Once you start getting to the high numbers, you don’t want to let the charity down.”
On the £500,000 question, Osman “naturally couldn’t” work out the long question in the five seconds he had left, Sir Stephen said.
He added: “I said: ‘I am going to have to take the money’. Afterwards, Jeremy asked: ‘Which one would you have gone for?’ and I said: ‘B, Jonas Blue ft Dakota’ only because they are the most recent band, so they may be likely to be the biggest gap.
“And in fact, it was the right answer which is almost worse than getting it wrong. You think ‘maybe I should have risked it’. But of course, you can’t risk it.”
The question asked of the songs Tragedy from Steps, Fast Car, covered by Jonas Blue and Dakota, Uptown Girl, performed by Westlife, and Killing Me Softly With His Song, popularised by the Fugees which entered into the UK charts’ top 40 for the longest time after the original first charted.
Tragedy is originally a Bee Gees song, Fast Car is Tracy Chapman’s debut single, Billy Joel released Uptown Girl, and Killing Me Softly With His Song was originally released by Lori Lieberman and then Roberta Flack.
Sir Stephen said he will donate his prize to mental health charity Mind, which he has been the president of since 2011.
“They have captured the attention of a whole new generation – either as something to support or indeed, to use its facilities and use its guidance on what it has to offer people who are in distress of mind,” Sir Stephen said.
“It is deeply worrying so many young people want to hurt themselves, this inner pain they are feeling. Mind is a wonderful resource.”
Sir Stephen is known as one half of a comedy double act along with House star Hugh Laurie, and their work on A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves And Wooster.
He was nominated for a Golden Globe for playing Irish writer Oscar Wilde in the 1997 film Wilde and has been open about his struggles with mental illness and his bipolar disorder diagnosis.
He fronted the BBC programme Stephen Fry’s The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive in 2006.
In the recent New Year Honours list, he was given a knighthood for his services to mental health awareness, the environment and to charity.
Also in this series, TV presenter Steph McGovern, Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke and former Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh will join Clarkson in an effort to win a million pounds for charity.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? continues on Sundays on ITV1 and ITVX.
