Man who fled millionaire show now poised to win £1m

The £500,000 winner of the latest edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? panicked and backed out of the show 18 months ago.

Unemployed Steve Devlin, from Belfast, who is on the verge of winning the £1m prize, had won a place among the 10 who have the chance to play for the top prize.

But, he refused to go on, saying he couldn't do it.

Despite protests from the show's producers nothing could persuade the 53-year-old to take part.

A spokeswoman for the ITV show said: "He came to the studios 18 months ago. He is quite a calm guy who just turned round to one of the girls and said, 'I cannot do this, I simply cannot do this'.

"Everybody tried to calm him down and told him how lucky he was to be one of 10 to get the chance to win.

"He just decided he could not go for the fast finger round and he had to go home."

Mr Devlin was the third contestant on the latest edition of the show as he coolly made his way to the penultimate round.

The only person to have won £1m on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? so far is Judith Keppel, a garden designer from Fulham, who walked away with the top prize on November 20 last year.

The spokeswoman added: "This time Steve came with Joe Cauley who is his friend and neighbour. Joe is a really calming influence on him - they make a great team."