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Stephen Fry has made history on Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire after he won an incredible sum of £250,000 on the show – with the help of host Jeremy Clarkson.
The former QI TV presenter took part in the first instalment of the celebrity version of the ITV show on Sunday night (26 January), and broke a record as the first celebrity to receive such a large amount of money on the programme.
Clarkson was instrumental to Fry’s win, when the “ask the host” option was used for the question: “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?”
The Clarkson’s Farm star knew the answer, which was Luxembourg City, sending Fry through to the next round for a £125,000 question.
After a string of successful rounds, the broadcaster had to tap out and choose to bank his money after not knowing the answer to the question: “Which of these cover songs entered the UK Top 40 the longest time after the original version first charted?”
The options were: “Tragedy” by Steps, “Fast Car” by Jonas Blue and Dakota, “Uptown Girl” by Westlife and “Killing me Softly by Fugees” – and the second option was the correct answer.
After it was revealed that Fry had secured £250,000 for his charity of choice, host Jeremy Clarkson dubbed the presenter’s appearance the “biggest celebrity win since I started this show”.
Speaking about his win, Fry 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.
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“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.”
Fry also used the phone a friend option, and called up Pointless star and author Richard Osman on the £500,000 question – but Osman couldn’t work out the answer in the limited time.
“I am delighted and I am not complaining at all,” said Fry. “It was extremely good fun. The time goes so quickly.”
Fry said he will donate his prize to mental health charity Mind, which he has been the president of since 2011.
Viewers were impressed by Fry’s knowledge when it came to methodically approaching each question.
One fan wrote on X/Twitter: “I love how the genius Stephen Fry on #whowantstobeamillionaire doesn’t just answer questions, but gives you full background and historical context to each answer.”
“Stephen Fry knows everything!” said one viewer, as another added: “He was excellent!”
