Man nearly loses £32,000 not reading Who Wants To Be A Millionaire question properly

Imagine getting onto one of the most lucrative quiz shows of all time and almost blowing it because you didn't read the question properly.

That's what happened to one man on an episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? last year when he was powering through the questions and hadn't set his safety net, only to nearly miss out on the money after he misunderstood the question.

Svein Clouston of Leith, Edinburgh made it into the Millionaire hot seat and by the time he made it to the £32,000 question he was already three lifelines down.

It didn't bode well for his chances of making it to a million quid with just the 'Phone a Friend' in his pocket for emergencies and to make matters worse he almost went home due to not reading a question right.

Coming face to face with the question 'Which of these sci-fi films was not directed by Ridley Scott?', Svein was presented with the choices of Interstellar, The Martian, Blade Runner and Prometheus.

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Sci-fi film fans will probably already know this one and Svein knew it as well, but it soon turned out that he'd misunderstood what was being asked.

The Millionaire contestant had missed the 'not' out of the question so he puzzled over what he thought he was supposed to be answering, trying to figure out which movie Ridley Scott actually had directed.

Right out of the gate he said he knew 'it's not Interstellar' adding that he didn't know who had directed it - it was Christopher Nolan - but he was sure it wasn't the right answer.

The camera cut back to host Jeremy Clarkson and viewers would have been able to see the cogs turning in his mind as he realised that Svein had misunderstood the question and was headed for disaster.

Svein kept puzzling over which films Ridley Scott had directed before thankfully catching himself before giving the wrong answer.

ITV

His moment of realisation came as he said 'hang on, I'm sorry' and started laughing at his near-miss.

Clarkson was likewise relieved that the contestant had recognised his mistake before it was too late, saying: "I was sitting there thinking 'you haven't read the question'."

Svein then gave Interstellar as his answer and Clarkson told him: "Well done for reading the question at the last moment."

It turned out to be a fortunate reprieve for Svein, who decided to set his safety net at £32,000 and came to realise that it had been the right decision as he didn't last much longer in Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.

He went out of the show at the £64,000 question on which historical event didn't happen during the reign of King Henry VIII, using his 'Phone A Friend' but getting the wrong answer anyway.

Still, thanks to him reading the correct question at the last moment he did walk away with the £32,000.