In this instalment of my interview with ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ millionaire Martin Flood, we discuss the actual experience of actually being there in the actual studio for the actual recording of the actual show. 

Oh, and he also has some tips about when to use the 3 lifelines…

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SH: Can you talk about actually playing the game, sitting opposite Eddie? How long were you in the seat ? How long did it all take?

MF: It only takes a little bit longer than what you see on TV. There’s only a few stops in there, and even the ad breaks don’t go for the whole length of the ad breaks.

SH: They’d been doing it a long time; I guess it’s a pretty slick operation by then.

MF: And I’d practised over and over again on my computer, written a little html java script program to bring up the question on the screen and then four answers that I had to put in order. I had typed in all four answers in my samples. So I just thought “sooner or later I’m going to get a question where I actually know the answer and I can sit down and wait for those four options to come on the screen and I can quickly lock it in”. The question that we got on this particular episode was “put this famous scientific equation in order”… so I thought it’s gotta be “E = MC squared”, because that fits nicely in four. I did one of the fastest times because I was so prepared. After all these years of telling people I’m going to win, it was an emotional moment. And then Eddie talked to me and tried to calm me down a bit. I was really trying to get used to it but once the question came up for $100 – a pretty easy question…

… the second question was a pretty easy question. Once those questions started coming through, I thought “Now I’m relaxed, I’m fine, I’m totally in my element , I’ve done this so many times in my head”.

For those of you playing along at home, the answer to the $100 question was “B: (Roses)”. And now here’s Martin’s $200 question…

SPOILER ALERT: The answer is is “D: (Women)”

SH: This is what you came for.

MF: Yeah, and I’d played it on my laptop and I imagined that I was there. When we got to the $1000 question, that was a safe level, so no matter what, you still win 1000 bucks.

And here that question is… 

Admittedly, it’s a very Australo-centric question, but the answer is “D: (Oaks)”.

MF: Once I got past that, it was all pretty straightforward. Even though there were a couple of questions that tested me a bit, I started to think that this is the most wonderful place in the world. This is unreal, I just loved it, because I was so prepared for it

SH: What was your strategy about when to use the ‘Ask The Audience’ lifeline?

MF: The general rule is that you ask the audience and then as the questions get more difficult you phone a friend and as it gets more difficult you go 50/50. That’s the supposed rule. But most people – and some of the really good quizzers I’ve spoken to – see the 50/50 as the most important lifeline, because it guarantees you’ve got 2 potentially correct answers.

Over time, I came to conclude that the best lifeline is actually the ‘Phone-A-Friend’, because we could almost guarantee the answer. Because about 95% of time we got the answer. The second best one I found out was actually the audience, and the 50/50 was the crappiest one. I got to a point where that not only I had the idea that was I going to win, but as a bonus I wanted to be able to do it without using any of the lifelines.

SH: You have to be careful with that, don’t you? You don’t want your pride to be getting you carried away…

Read Martin’s response to this, next time, right here at www.howtowingameshows.com!