Welcome to the fifth instalment of my exclusive interview with Millionaire Hot Seat winner Judd Field. At this stage of proceedings, Judd’s been in the Hot Seat, he’s chosen to pass on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles question, and so has returned to the contestant queue. None of his competitors have lasted long in their turns in the Hot Seat though, and we’ve cycled through them all quite quickly, and now Judd’s back in prime position. His next question is about rice, and it’s worth $4000…Which of these rice varieties is named after a town in Italy?
A) Arborio
B) Basmati
C) Calrose
D) Japonica
You seemed sure it was Arborio. Of course, it WAS Arborio, and that answer earned you $4,000.
SH: For the question after that…
Which of these current model motor vehicles is not produced by Holden?
A) Captiva
B) Equinox
C) Mondeo
D) Trailblazer
At first you seemed unsure, but you then locked in “Ford Mondeo”. That was correct, and you were now sitting on $6,000.
JF: Haha, yes! That was one of those questions where the words of the producer’s pre-show talk were ringing in my ear; “Read the question properly”. I remember working through which of the options it wasn’t; “Holden Captiva”, “Holden Trailblazer”, “Holden Captiva”… they all sounded kinda right. Or at least not wrong. “Holden Mondeo”? No, that did sound wrong – it’s “Ford Mondeo”. Also, I used to have a Captiva and my Ford-mad uncle used to have a Mondeo (I used to tease him….haha!) So I was sure… once I had read the question 5 times haha.
SH: The next question, for $10,000, was:
In the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, the central character wins the show by answering a question about which novel?
A) The Three Musketeers
B) Crime and Punishment
C) Treasure Island
D) The Great Gatsby
Your reasoning here was great – you went for The Three Musketeers, remembering that the Millionaire format always shows 4 options. The Three Musketeers was, of course, correct, and you were now on $10,000.
In preparing for this interview, I looked it up, and the actual question that appears in the movie Slumdog Millionaire is
In Alexander Dumas’ book The Three Musketeers, two of the musketeers are called Athos and Porthos. What is the name of the third Musketeer?
A) Cardinal Richelieu
B) Planchet
C) D’Artagnan
D) Aramis
* I have not seen this film. I like to think that if I were in Judd’s position on Millionaire Hot Seat, I’d talk it out and arrive at the conclusion that the answer to the Hot Seat question is The Three Musketeers, based on the reasoning that in the novel, the “three” musketeers are actually four musketeers – Aramis, Athos, Porthos and the new kid on the block, D’Artagnan – and the Millionaire format always has four answer options.
BUT… if the question in Slumdog Millionaire was the million dollar question, I think it’s also reasonable to assume that the WWTBAM question writers would have come up with a more esoteric question; perhaps something obscure from Crime and Punishment – an intimidating, highbrow title that fewer people would be familiar with. As Martin Flood says, you gotta EARN that million, after all. And on that basis, if I were in Judd’s position on Hot Seat, I probably would have locked in B, Crime and Punishment. And I’d have been out. My thinking-too-much would have been my downfall (along with the fact that I haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire).
JF: Yeah, I was quietly confident about this one, It’s like the more I talked it through, the more clear my recollection was of that part of the movie.
SH: Your penultimate question was:
The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is the world’s longest bridge, located in which country?
A) India
B) Japan
C) Thailand
D) China
You deduced – or was it guessed? – China, for $20,000. Was it a guess? What were you feeling at this point?
JF: This one was the result of a few Discovery Channel docos I had watched recently, one on a massive suspension bridge in Japan, and then another on a very long bridge in China. I just had a visual clip playing in my brain of the camera zooming along the long concrete bridge, going for ages.
Also, even though I don’t speak any other languages, I’m fascinated by trying to work out where people come from by both their facial features, and also mimicking the sounds of other languages, so in my head I was mimicking how these words would sound if they were said in Chinese and then in Japanese. After that played out in my head, I was sure “Danyang” was a Chinese word. Lock it in, Eddie!
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And just like that, Judd Field was $20,000 richer! Next week, the final part of our interview, and the triumphant denouement of Judd’s Millionaire Hot Seat Odyssey. See you then!