My TV quiz show triumphs were not to be coughed at | Simon Carter

It was interesting to watch, yet still left me uncertain how a jury could have come to the conclusion he was guilty. Yes, his performance was amazingly suspicious, and yes he probably did cheat. But from the evidence shown, how could a jury absolutely know for sure?

Anyway, it brought back the memories of when I was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (WWTBAM). How much did I win? Well, I wasn’t on it that much. OK, I wasn’t actually on the programme at all. But I could have been.

You see, I was a ‘Phone A Friend’ choice for a colleague I once worked with on newspapers in Yeovil and Bristol. He had successfully got on to the programme (whether that was with or without the help of the mysterious Paddy Spooner, I have no idea). This was a few years back, and at the time each contestant could have six ‘Phone A Friends’ – one for a different specialist subject. I was my friend’s ‘sport’ option.

Well, Andy was a Fastest Finger and he ended up winning something like £32,000, I can’t remember for sure. But I do know this – I wasn’t called upon. I sat at home all evening waiting for a call which never arrived. And he never offered me a slice of his winnings either, the git.

However, I have won a daytime TV quiz programme. In fact, I’ve won two. Good news, for programmes like The Chase and WWTBAM offer big cash prizes. Actually, it was bad news, the programme I won had the lowest prize in televisual quiz history.

Hands up who remembers 100 Per Cent? Mmmmm, not many. I don’t blame you, if I hadn’t been on it I wouldn’t remember it either. 100 Per Cent was shown every weekday afternoon from March 1997 – the month Channel 5 hit the airwaves – until Christmas Eve 2001. The format was simple (as were the contestants if I was on there, I hear you chortle) – three members of Joe Public were given 100 multiple choice questions and whoever got the most right won... pauses for dramatic effect... £100.

Yep, in front of Chris Tarrant, you could win £100 by answering a simple question. I had to answer 100 questions to win the same amount of cash. But please remember 100 Per Cent must have been the lowest budget TV quiz show ever on daytime British TV.

WWTBAM had the famous Chris Tarrant asking the questions, The Chase has the well-known Bradley Walsh. We didn’t even have a question master on 100 Per Cent, not one we could see anyway – the 100 questions were just read out over a Tannoy!

And while glitter cascaded down on Major Ingram after his final correct answer and the audience erupted into prolonged cheers and applause, that wasn’t the case when I won my two episodes of 100 Per Cent. Two simple reasons for that – there was no glitter, and there was no audience.

So to sum up, no questionmaster standing in front of me and no audience watching my two quiz triumphs. In truth, probably not many people were watching at home either when it was finally aired. Only certain parts of the country could actually get Channel 5 when it was first launched, and my appearances were fairly early on in their lifespan. I think the viewing figure for my first win was something like 56, and 24 of those were living on the same street in Scunthorpe.

And they say appearing on television is glamorous!

Still, as I’ve always told (spelt b-o-r-e-d) friends and colleagues ever since, better to have won a daytime quiz programme on TV than never to have won one at all.

And I’ve won two! Beat that...