I Was (almost) a Phone a Friend

Somewhere around the end of October I had a phone call from my brother (Darren Kenny), he had been invited to take part in a Gold Medal Who Wants to be a Millionaire? special and wondered if I could be a Phone a Friend. To take part he needed to provide five friends and with the money going to the Piam Brown Child Cancer Ward at Southampton Hospital how could I refuse.

The show was filmed on a weekday afternoon and as the day came nearer I was scheduled to run a training course, a quick discussion with the customer and they understood that I might need to nip out for a few minutes towards the end of the day. After lunch on the day of filming Darren set a quick text to say they had finished rehearsals and they would start filming soon. Everyone in the classroom was on tender hooks in the afternoon and as the session closed my mobile phone went off. Rushing into a side room to answer, it was from a researcher just checking that I was still available if needed and to go through the rules:

The Rules

1. Make sure I kept the line free for the next 2 hours
   
2. I was to let the phone ring for 5 rings
3. Chris would introduce himself
4. I would then have 30 seconds with Darren where he will ask me the question
5. I was not allowed to confer with anyone during that time
6. I was not allowed to consult reference material
7. I was not allowed to look up the answer on the internet

If they thought that broke rules 4-6 then Darren and his partner would forfeit everything and their designated charities would get nothing.

After agreeing all I could was wait, after 3 hours Darren texted me to say he had finished recording and that they used another friend as it was a Geography question.

The episode was shown on the 29th December on ITV1, Darren and Liz Jonson (Paralympic Swimmer) raised £10,000 for their charities.