Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

From a group of ten contestants, the quickest to answer a simple question is selected to come to the middle of the studio and play for a million pounds. Starting off with a question worth £100 the money doubles (more or less) with each question – but they also get progressively harder and harder. If the contestant gets a question wrong he drops back down to either £1000 or £32000, depending on which he has passed, however to help him he can select 50/50 (two of the four answers disappear), ask the audience (the audience chose the answer for him in percentage terms) or phone a friend (the contestant can ring someone to ask him the question). As if that wasn't tense enough, Chris Tarrant never lets it lie for a second.

I'm not a big fan of this show because, like many viewers I just saw it too many times. However, at its peak it was the show everyone wanted to be on and was the one everyone watched. The questions start with the obvious and build to the increasingly more difficult and the TV audience generally start out going 'well durr' before then entering the stage where they shout the right answer at the telly and then eventually taking guesses and muttering 'don't risk it, don't risk it' like some sort of mantra under their breath. It makes for riveting viewing even if the first 4 or 5 questions are always pretty dull. The formula is simple but the UK presenter Chris Tarrant is responsible for making it as successful as it was.

Tarrant may be a little smug for my personal tastes but here he found a vehicle that he could use his smarmy character to good effect. 'Are you sure' he repeatedly asks with a rather self-satisfied smirk on his face while the contestants suddenly suffer a crises of confidence and the audience holds its breath. Combined with the atmospheric music, low lighting and the constant heartbeat effect it made it an enjoyably tense quiz show even if it was hardly anything like Mastermind in terms of intellect. However, when ITV found they had a hit on their hands they made the decision to ride it as hard as they possibly could and in fairness I suppose that this was the best decision in the short term. It would be off for a few months while people rang in and sponsors jockeyed for position and then it would be everywhere for a few months – on almost every night of the week, on several times a day at Christmas time etc and this continued for quite a while. But then viewers started to get too used to the formula and turned off. ITV countered with the twists of couples taking part, celebrities, father/son etc but eventually they dropped it down into a teatime slot and now it appears to occasionally turn up on a Saturday afternoon (but I think it is all repeats). I can understand why ITV did this – it gave them a sudden massive boost in the ratings, they were selling advertising space for as high a price as they could and it looked like it would never end – and then it did.

Overall this is not a great quiz show. The questions are not so hard that most people with a good general knowledge couldn't get to £32k without too much stress and really it is only the atmosphere created by the music, lighting and the host that really made this as successful as it was. It was easy to veg in front of this show and think 'I could do that' and also enjoy seeing people get stressed and a) risk it all and win, b) risk it all and lose, c) just take the money or d) cheat and get taken to court! Fun but basically killed off by ITV chasing as much cash as it could get as quickly as possible.

Buy a Casio Calculator - in 1981 for step-daughter - play with it for five minutes, multiply 1x2, 2x2, 4x2 and so on.., realize that got past one million quick - with just twenty multiplications, recheck, what a great idea for a board game, I'll call it 'Millionaire'. Start with a £ or a $ and become a Millionaire.

There will be Q&A., Chance it Cards, Bank it Cards, Risk it Cards and Lifelines at £1,000, £32,000 and £64,000 - in each corner of the board.

Why not create a format of the concept for TV. Add a few more additions like, Phone-in - to get on the show, FFF., in this case, Fastest Foot First, because there is a floor. Questions and Answers, a Hot Seat - one to one, etc. It's so simple everyone will love it, I'll send it to a couple of TV companies to see if they are interested, how about, Celador and ITV? No, no luck there. Oh! It looks like they did like it in the end, but my name is not on it, why is that? Oh! I see, someone else created it, in fact, three others known as the the 'Dream Team' created it, at the same time as me. What a Bummer! What a coincidence as well? They must have some real un-doctored documents to prove they created it BEFORE me surely, don't they? Lets' ask them. No. Well that is strange don't you think? Not even one credible document? No, you were told no, but, they did create it. Well, I suppose, three against one, and of course, Celador and ITV say it was them. Not a lot one can do because they now have all the money earned from it and some even have had awards bestowed upon them.

It wasn't such a bad idea in the end was it? Thank you John, lots of people did enjoy it... and thank you Casio.

Incidentally, the Celador and ITV TV Pilot started with One Pound exactly the same as my format. It was painfully slow and needed to change.

The great phrase, 'Phone a Friend', did not come from me. I wish it had.

The person who coined that phrase was Mr Tim Boone. It was taken from his TV format called 'Help' which was presented to ITV at the same time as my concept, 'Millionaire', ITV used it, without his say-so, I believe.

Thought I should try to put the record straight - as no one else will.

And life goes on...

It was a great show in the early years but lost alot of sparkle. Like him or not Clarkson is a great host in this show.

As a Bangladeshi born American living in California, where we are really friendly like Canadians, I initially found Jeremy Clarkson to be the embodiment of insufferable British smugness. He is repugnantly superior, patronizing, and dismissive of his fellow human beings. Just his presence makes the show offputting.

However I love how he used "volte-face" in a sentence and traveled the world and even relishing plane crashing in Mali. I love that in a person - intellect.

So once you get used to the British bluntness you may start to appreciate the show more.

The selection of questions are generally quite good.

This was a good show. It started off and for like the next 6 months it ROCKED! But, unfortunately ITV obviously milked this show too much by putting it on too often! The show became very monotonus and predictable (stand up Chris Tarrant! lol) My theory is that ITV should have sheduled this show at like once a week (maybe on a Saturday!) then people like me wouldn't have got so bored with it so easily. Shame. 8/10