That was what Peter Salmon, then Controller of BBC One, dubbed Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? when it first hit ITV prime time (on Friday 4 September 1998) and proceeded to decimate his carefully laid plans day after day after day. The show was originally ordered for a ten episode run. Such was its instant success this was extended indefinitely. Now, fifteen years later Chris Tarrant has announced he will finally leave the programme and ITV has said that the current run of special editions will be the last.

In those fifteen years the format has, in global television history, become the most widely sold show as an original production and has been produced worldwide in at least eighty-one different versions in at least one hundred and six countries. ‘Millionaire’ has never been copied successfully - a tribute to the degree of control that its owners have always exercised in protecting the property.

To tell us the story of the birth and high times of one of TV's true megahits, we will be joined by Chris Tarrant, Paul Smith (then MD of Production Company, Celador) and David Liddiment (then Director of the ITV Network Centre). We will also play a round of the famous game, complete with 'phone a friend' and 'ask the audience' in which Michael Grade will test his knowledge in this unique format, to see how far he can progress through the famous fifteen question journey.

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