Davina McCall (The Million Pound Drop Live) interview

The familiar strains of the credit music playing out the last ever Big Brother may still be ringing in our ears, but Davina McCall has already moved on to her next TV project. Channel 4's The Million Pound Drop Live is a big money game show event transmitted live, nightly, from a highly secure location. Contestants are given their prize - £1 million - at the start of the show. All they have to do is keep hold of it over eight tough questions.

After each one of the eight questions the contestants must put their money on one of four trapdoors, on which different answers are written. If they are unsure of the answer they can spread the money across the trap doors, but if the answer is wrong their winnings will fall through the doors and be lost forever.


You’re back on our screens with a second run of The Million Pound Drop Live. The first did really well. What is it that makes the show so exciting?

"Well, firstly it’s a live quiz show, which makes it really very tense, and it’s fun because we can use topical questions, like what temperature is it in Mexico right now, which was a question from the last series, or questions from that morning’s newspapers. It’s live, and that makes it very different, and it makes it a lot more stressful for our contestants, I think. There’s an immediacy, there’s no stopping and starting.

"Once it’s going, it’s going. And, of course, we give our contestants a million pounds to play with. The problem with that is when you see the cold hard cash - and it is real, there are security guards everywhere - you probably become a lot more cautious. When you’re playing along online at home - which is another brilliant aspect to the show - you might be a bit rash or a bit braver, but when you’re touching that money, you’re a lot more conscious of how you’re betting it.

"There is always the potential for you to split your whole million over three drops, and actually the correct answer is the one drop that you don’t have any money on. And somebody did that in the last series. They lost a million pounds on the first question."

That must have been awful to witness...

"I was literally screaming the answer in my head. I knew the answer. It was awful."

What’s it like for you seeing a million pounds in cash?

"It’s very exciting, and it never gets tired. It’s really intense. And I suppose having all the security guards around makes it even more intense."

What other precautions are there?

"The audience are practically strip-searched before they come in. They’re not, but it’s a very, very, very rigorous security check that they have to go through, and mobile phones are taken away. It’s quite a small audience, and they are a long way away from the money, and they wouldn’t be able to make a run for it because they are above the set, up on a balcony."

Have you ever been tempted to grab the money and run out of the studio cackling?

"Yeah, but I couldn’t grab it all. The money’s too much of a huge wodge. I wouldn’t be able to grab and run."

Maybe just stuff £25 grand down your bra…

"Actually, even a wodge of £25 grand is too big to get down the bra. It’s big! So I won’t be stealing any money in the near future."

When contestants get to the last question, they have to out all their money on one of two answers. That can get pretty tense, can’t it?

"Yes. In the last series, one couple had £525,000 left at the last question, and they went on the wrong one. That was life-changing. It was agonising."

Did you know the answer to that one?

"No, I had no idea."

When you do know the answer, as you did when the contestants lost all £1 million on their first go, are you never tempted to hint to them or nudge them in the right direction?

"I would so love to do that, but I’d lose my job in a nanosecond. I really can’t hint or give them any clues or anything, because I’d have to go if I did that, and I like the show too much."

You’ve seen enough people play the game now to know what tactics work. What’s the best strategy?

"I’ve thought long and hard about strategy. It’s important to keep hold of your million for as long as you can, but if you don’t know the answer, you’ve got to spread the risk. If you put your entire million on the wrong answer, you’re out. You just want to get through those eight questions, and have money for the eighth question, that’s all you’ve got to do. Because whatever money you have on the eighth question is money you could potentially win, and you’ve got a 50:50 chance of winning it. But we’ve practised this a lot in the office, and there’s no hard-and-fast way to win it."

How do you think you’d do if you took part?

"I don’t think I’d do very well, because I’ve always found the last question, the 50:50 question, really, really hard. I think the questions on the show are very interesting ones though - and sometimes you know the answer when you wouldn’t expect to. Sometimes I even know the science questions!"

No-one won in the last series until a couple won £75,000 in the last programme. Is the game too tough?

"I still found it gripping each night, even though nobody had won. The problem is you can’t win until you get to the eighth question, unlike Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, where you can win £1,000 quite easily. On this programme, you will win big money - you’ll win a minimum of £25,000 if you win, but it’s hard to get there. I quite like that. Can you beat the drop? The drop has turned into this evil machine that is very hard to beat. It’s almost taken on a life of its own."

The audience is very vocal. How do you make sure they aren’t shouting out the answers?

"We ask them not to shout anything until after they have moved their money. After they’ve moved their money, and it’s locked down, you can make any noise that you want. That’s what we try and do."

You mentioned that people can play along at home. How does that aspect of the game work?

"It’s brilliant. You just go to channel4.com/millionpounddrop and you find the bit where it says ‘play along’ and you can play along with the game live. You get the same questions as the contestant is getting, at the same time. In the last series, we had hundreds of thousands of people playing along. There were 3 million games played during the series.

"People really enjoyed it. If I was at home, I’d definitely be playing along. And if you do well, and you start to think you can beat the drop, you can then phone up there and then, and you might be on the show the next day."

And then you discover the difference between playing along at home and playing on live TV with £1 million cash.

"Exactly!"

You get offered a lot of shows to present. Why did you decide on this one?

"I think because it was unique. The fact that it was a live quiz show, which hadn’t been done before, the fact that it was the first late night entertainment programme that Channel 4 had done in ages. And I went and I played it, and found myself completely hooked. I reckoned people would really enjoy watching it."

Do you get a real thrill out of doing live TV? Is that where it’s at for you?

"I really live it. It’s tense and it’s nail-biting and it’s exciting and it’s thrilling, and it’s over really fast. I’ve been filming another show in the last couple of weeks, and it’s recorded, and the amazing thing about Million Pound Drop is you get there, rehearse, record it for an hour, and then you’re done. I like that immediacy."

Have you ever needed the loo during live TV?

"Oh God, all the time. I usually need the loo because I’m nervous. I always go just before I go out on stage, but I always end up wanting to do a nervous wee. In fact, the final of Big Brother was a bit of an issue, because I was live for two hours. So I couldn’t wee for two hours. People kept going “Do you want some water?” “No thanks!”"


The Million Pound Drop Live airs at 10pm every night from Monday 25th October 2010 on Channel 4.