Retired IT analyst Roman Dubowski has become the seventh contestant to win the £1m jackpot on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, ending a six-year drought for the show. He answered all 15 questions correctly under host Jeremy Clarkson, who described him as “an encyclopaedia in a shirt”.
Dubowski, who had applied twice before unsuccessfully, said he was confident on the final question about a Manet painting, which he recalled seeing at the Courtauld Gallery. He used his 50:50 lifeline but said it merely confirmed his answer. He also had the “Ask Jeremy” lifeline available.
During the game, he had a near miss at the £1,000 question, which asked for the missing key ingredient in mayonnaise. He later told ITV: “One of my strategies was to stay calm and not rush, to speak slowly and think things through rather than jump at an answer.”
Dubowski is the second winner under Clarkson’s tenure, following Donald Fear in 2020. The Chris Tarrant era produced five winners: Judith Keppel (2000), David Edwards (2001), Robert Brydges (2001), Pat Gibson (2004) and Ingram Wilcox (2006). ITV has announced that another contestant from the current series will also win the jackpot next month, bringing the total to eight.
The show’s history includes controversy: in 2001, Major Charles Ingram was accused of cheating by using coughs from an accomplice in the audience. His £1m prize was rescinded after producers detected the pattern.
