Last year Davyth Fear, 60, from Caernarfon, Wales, who flew through the questions and secured an impressive £500,000 with his phone-a-friend lifeline still available, was left stumped when reaching the final round by a question dubbed as ‘easy’ by fans of the quiz show.
The retired geography teacher – whose episode first aired in September 2019 – decided to walk away with half a million pounds – and says that helping his family out with his winnings has been ‘the best bit.’
Speaking of the first thing he spent his money on, Davyth exclusively told FEMAIL: ‘I helped my family out. I’ve got a brother, two sisters, nephews and nieces and helped them. I gave them a cash sum.’
‘One of them spent it on new windows for his new house, I’ve got one in university and they’re keeping it safe for afterwards just in case, while my sister likes diving, so spent it on a motor home.’
He continued: ‘I’m not interested in big cars, or fancy watches. I bought myself a nice camera. The money takes the pressure off.
‘We’d already bought a house and so on, so I didn’t need to prove anything by buying this, that and the other. It’s just a matter of being able to enjoy life and not necessarily spend stupidly and enjoy what we have.’
‘My life isn’t too different to anyone else I would think, since we’ve all been in lockdown.’
‘I’m enjoying being at home and taking the dog for a walk in the morning, not meeting anyone else. We had three months of glorious sunshine, so I’ve been spending time in the garden.
But while he hasn’t splashed his cash on materialist items, Davyth, who has always loved travelling, did take a dream trip to Uganda.
‘My wife needed a new hip and two new knees,’ he explained. ‘She had the hip done but is still waiting for her two knees, so I did go on holiday to Uganda to see the chimpanzees.
‘I went by myself to see the gorillas and so on because you’re in the mountains she wouldn’t have been mobile enough to make it.’
‘Which of these people was born the same year as Queen Elizabeth II?’ host Jeremy Clarkson (pictured) asked before presenting Davyth with the options: ‘Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews and Marilyn Monroe.’
Retired geography teacher Davyth Fear, from Caernarfon, Wales, flew through the questions – securing an impressive £500,000 with his phone-a-friend lifeline still available. But he was stumped when reaching the final round by a question dubbed as ‘easy’ by fans (above)
As for the future, he added: ‘I’ve always liked travelling. It’s not on the agenda for the next year or so because my wife still needs two knee operations, but she’s always wanted to go to Antarctica, so we would like to go on the cruise to see the penguins.’
‘My wife also wants to go to Canada to see polar bears, so perhaps that’ll happen in the next couple of years.’
Davyth went on to explain that he retired full-time as a teacher around four years ago, and was a supply teacher from then on.
‘I was thinking about giving up being a supply teacher anyway last year, but after winning all this money, I didn’t need to make that decision, did I?’ he said.
However, after the episode aired last night, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire viewers were left ‘screaming at the TV’ after Davyth walked away from an ‘easy’ £1million question.
Speaking of the viewers reaction, Davyth said: ‘It’s easy if you know it. I was guessing at the £2, 000 and £4, 000 question.
‘The question about goosebumps I didn’t know and that was probably the hardest question for me. I didn’t want to risk a lifeline and I didn’t know the answer. It was an educated guess.’
Jeremy Clarkson read the question: ‘Which of these people was born the same year as Queen Elizabeth II?’ before presenting Davyth with the options: ‘Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews and Marilyn Monroe.’
Davyth won the £500,000 after using his second to last lifeline and asking the audience for help with the penultimate question (seen above)
Having thought the correct answer was Audrey Hepburn before ringing a friend who claimed it to be Judy Garland, Davyth decided not to risk it and walked away with half a million.
Queen Elizabeth II was born in 21 April 1926, which was the same year as Marilyn Monroe.
Judy Garland was born four years earlier in 1922, while Audrey Hepburn came along in 1929 – making Julie Andrews the youngest with a birth date of 1 October 1935.
Viewers watching the episode yesterday were left sunned with the uncomplicated question, worth £1million.
One person wrote: ‘Easy question for the £1million,’ while another said: ‘Screaming at the TV! For a million pounds!’
A third boasted: ‘When you get a million pound question right before the answers are revealed!’, as a fourth viewer added: ‘I knew the answer to the million pound question before the options came up.’
Davyth was a contestant on the 4th episode of the 33rd Series of the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and the 10th contestant to win £500,000.
He was praised by the audience at home for his intelligence after flying through the first couple of questions without assistance.