Millionaire banker made another million

The makers of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? today defended the quiz show from accusations of elitism.

Paul Smith, managing director of Celador, spoke as controversy rumbled on over claims that the latest winner was a millionaire already.

Banker Robert Kempe Brydges is reported to have scooped the top prize on Tuesday with the episode due to be screened tomorrow night.

GMTV presenter Eamonn Holmes today suggested that only millionaires or minor royals ever won on the show, citing the example of Judith Keppel, a distant cousin of Camilla Parker Bowles, who was first to scoop the jackpot on Chris Tarrant’s quiz.

Mr Smith replied: ‘‘Judith Keppel was what many people would term well-heeled but she was also extremely knowledgeable.’’

He insisted that everyone had an equal chance of winning, quoting the example of Steve Devlin, an unemployed sewage worker from Belfast, who came within one question of the top prize, as an example of how ‘‘ordinary people’’ could triumph.

‘‘You ring a premium rate phone line, you answer a question and from there your chances are the same as those of anyone else,’’ he said.

Mr Brydges lives with wife Marilyn and their two children in a £1.3m three-storey townhouse in Holland Park, west London, and a country home rented from the National Trust in Mottisfont, Hampshire.