First millionaire quiz winner to host BBC show

Quiz millionaire Judith Keppel is to be a resident TV brainbox for a new BBC series.

Keppel, who was the first winner of ITV1’s Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Top prize, is on a panel of experts for general knowledge challenge Eggheads.

Each weekday teams of challengers will take on Keppel’s side, all of them quiz champs, to win a cash prize.

She told PA News: “It was great fun doing it and I’ve become great friends with all the others on my team.

“They were all doing revision before the shows and I hadn’t done any. I think in future I might have to swot up.

The five-week series – presented by Dermot Murnaghan – kicks off tomorrow at 12.30pm.

Keppel added: “I hope it’s a great success. They want to do more – we’ve just done one series so far. But we’ll have to wait and see whether there are any more.”

She said she took a role on the show because it was fun, rather than because her fortune was running out.

“Oh, that’s my security for my old age” she said.

If the team of “eggheads” is not beaten, the cash prize rolls over to the next show.

As well as Keppel, her team includes two Mastermind winners a Mensa chess champion and a Brain of Britain winner.