Who Wants to be a Millionaire? jackpot winner says he ‘walked into school to clapping and cheering’

Teacher is show’s first winner in 14 years

Donald Fear, the teacher who recently became the sixth ever winner of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, has said he is “overwhelmed” by the response of his students.

The history and politics teacher from Telford became the first contestant to win the show in 14 years on Friday night (11 September), after correctly answering the final question about the death of the famous pirate, Blackbeard, in 1718.

Speaking to This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on Monday (14 September), Fear said: “I walked into school to clapping and cheering. Everyone is so happy for me, it’s quite overwhelming.”

He joked: “Luckily, all of that clapping and cheering will soon stop as I start setting homework.”

Fear also admitted that he would have struggled if he had been given pop culture questions. “Well, I do own a large number of ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ CDs,” he said. “Pretty well all of those, but if it had been who was number 1 back in 2004, I might have been struggling.”

Donald Fear on 'This Morning' (ITV)

When Willoughby suggested a question about the Kardashians might have been a stretch, Fear replied: “The who?”

On how he plans to spend his one million pounds, Fear said he would “waste a lot of money on CDs”, and will share out the cash between his family.

He plans to retire at the end of the year and buy a motor home to visit various sites around “wonderful Britain”.