Entertainment
The Wheel contestant wins £82k jackpot after taking huge risk
Contestant Dean decided to ‘go big’ while on the show (Picture: BBC/Hungry Bear/ Gary Moyes/Matt Burlem)
Contestant Dean took a massive gamble on Saturday’s episode of Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel, which saw him walk away from the BBC gameshow with a jackpot win of £82,000.
The primary school teacher had been first up from the contestant wheel on to the studio floor to play for a potentially hefty cash sum with the help of the episode’s celebrity experts.
Saturday’s panel featured Olympian Greg Rutherford, Coronation Street’s Nigel Havers, comedian and podcaster Chris Ramsey, TV presenter AJ Odudu, the Rev Kate Bottley, dating expert Paul C Brunson and Made in Chelsea’s Sophie Hermann.
After a strong start, Dean got kicked off when the wheel landed on Greg Rutherford, who he’d shut down in red prior to the question, which meant he had to make way for another contestant by the rules of the game.
Fellow contestants Amy and Dean then both had a crack at the competition, but it wasn’t long before Dean was re-selected to join the game not once, not twice, but three times more, after making a couple of mistakes on questions including Rev Kate’s subject of hymns, when he joked he’d be ‘going to hell’ for not correctly guessing the bird mentioned in Morning Has Broken.
Making it all the way to the final question after his incredible run of selection luck on Michael McIntyre’s show, having cleared the wheel of its other topics, the celebrities were ranked according to the number of correct answers they’d submitted, with Sophie Hermann bringing up the rear in seventh place.
The Wheel was Michael’s creation (Picture: BBC/Hungry Bear/ Gary Moyes/Matt Burlem)
Dean and the other contestants had banked £41,000 throughout the game, which meant host Michael offered him the chance to pair up with middle-ranked expert Nigel Havers to win it all, to play it more safely and receive help from top expert Rev Kate for £20,500 – or to take a big gamble and team with bottom expert Sophie to rake in a jackpot of double the total for £82,000.
After pondering his options, Dean declared: ‘I said to my son if I ever got on to this show I’d go hard or I’d just go home.
‘So it’s trying to make dreams come true and go big, so I’m going to go big.’
He and Sophie were then faced with a question on wine, with just 30 seconds to discuss possibilities and lock in an answer.
Dean was faced with a final question on a new topic (Picture: BBC)
Sophie was ready to help Dean (Picture: BBC)
Luckily for Dean, Sophie came in straight away with her suggestion of what ‘chambré’ meant in relation to wine, stating: ‘Chambré – room temperature. Chambre means room.’
More: BBC
As Dean decided to go with her advice, Sophie, who is from Munich, joked that her hands were ‘schwitzing’ (sweating) as they nervously awaited the correct answer.
Much to everyone’s delight, Dean’s risky decision paid off massively as he got to walk away with a ‘life-changing’ sum of money.
The Wheel airs at 8.30pm on Saturdays on BBC One and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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