Sir Alex Ferguson heads Who Wants to be a Millionaire Christmas line-up

(Image credit: Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment)

Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson will try to regain his winning form as a contestant on the last ever live edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

He will team up with presenter Eamonn Holmes for a celebrity edition of the show screened on ITV tomorrow (December 19), nine years after they first took part in the programme.

Former Countdown star Carol Vorderman is also taking part, and the maths wiz will be hoping to find the formula to win cash for charity when she is paired with actress Caroline Quentin.

ITV has axed the show, with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? bowing out next year, but there are two further pre-recorded celebrity specials to be screened in the coming months.

Also lined up to appear are I'm a Celebrity winner Kian Egan and Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington.

Eamonn, who won £32,000 during his last performance on the show with Sir Alex, said: "It will be a chance to see if Sir Alex still possesses his winning ways and if we can get the better of Chris Tarrant with our mind games.

"Although it's a tremendous honour to be invited back, the pressure is on to see if we can better our winnings."

Carol said: "It's my birthday on Christmas Eve - the reason I'm called Carol - so a nice million-pound question would be a lovely birthday present for my chosen charity too."

The show will be presented by regular question master Chris Tarrant and the stars will play for their favourite charities.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.