Will and Baby spice show their brainy side
Pop Idol Will Young and former Spice Girl Emma Bunton won £8,000 (€12,843) for charity in a Christmas Day celebrity edition of the UK version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?.
The nervous popstars struggled to reach £1,000 and had used up all their lifelines by the time they reached the £16,000 question on the ITV1 special.
They changed their minds twice before deciding not to gamble on the £16,000 question and walked away with £8,000 for the NSPCC.
Will said: “It has honestly always been a dream of mine to appear on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
But the pop pair found being in the hotseat hard work.
They asked the audience for their help on the £500 question before correctly answering that Pontiff is another name for the Pope.
They were stumped by their original £1,000 question because they did not know that cricket legend Garfield Sobers played for the West Indies and decided to pass on it.
Instead they correctly answered another question for £1,000 by saying that fired eggs are associated with the American phrase “over easy“.
At £4,000 they decided to phone a friend and called Will’s house master from his old school who knew that Eisenhower was the supreme Commander of the 1944 allied invasion of France.
For £8,000, the pop pair answered correctly that supermodel Elle MacPherson once played Joey’s flatmate in the comedy Friends.
A spokesman for the programme said: “Emma and Will really kept us on the edge of our seats. It was really exciting to watch them as they struggled through the questions. The whole audience was really willing them on to do well.”
Betty Boothroyd, the former speaker of the House of Commons, won £16,000 with her goddaughter Jackie Martinez for The Memorial to Women of World War II Fund.
Boothroyd was “delighted” with the win, her spokeswoman said later.
Other stars set to appear include Des O’Connor and his presenting partner Melanie Sykes, sports presenter Des Lynam and newsreader Mary Nightingale plus actor Neil Morrissey and Fast Show star Arabella Weir.
