David Edwards (born 1947) is a Welsh physics teacher, best known as a TV quiz contestant. On 21 April 2001 he became the first man to win the million pounds in the UK version of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' and only the second person after Judith Keppel. He competed in both series of '' Are You an Egghead?'', reaching the last 16 in 2008, and the final in 2009, where he lost to fellow ''Millionaire'' winner

Pat Gibson Patrick Gibson (born 19 July 1961) is an Irish quizzer. On 24 April 2004 he became the fourth contestant to win the £1m jackpot on the quiz show ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''. He is a multiple world champion in quizzing and one of the wo ...

Early career

Born in Barry, Wales, Edwards graduated in Metallurgy from Swansea University in 1969, subsequently completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Keele University. He studied Advanced French as an external student at Keele University with his wife Viv Edwards. He worked as a physics teacher at

Cheadle High School The Cheadle Academy (formerly Cheadle High School) is a coeducational secondary school with academy status located in Cheadle, Staffordshire in the Midlands area of England. It has around 790 pupils ranging from Year 7 to 13. The Cheadle A ...

and

Denstone College Denstone College is a mixed, independent, boarding and day school in Denstone, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England. It is a Woodard School, having been founded by Nathaniel Woodard, and so Christian traditions are practised as part of Colleg ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, prior to his appearance on ''Millionaire''.

''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire''

His million pound question was "If you planted the seeds of '' Quercus robur'', what would grow?" The options were Trees, Flowers, Vegetables and Grain. The correct answer was Trees. He used no lifelines for this question, having used all three on a £125,000 question. The phone-a-friend he used during his run was his son, Richard Edwards, who later won £125,000 on the show in May 2004, and David returned the favour and acted as his son's phone-a-friend.

Other quiz appearances

Edwards was the '' Mastermind'' champion in 1990, and was awarded the title of Mensa Superbrain in 1985 after winning a newspaper competition.Top Brains of Mensa to compete in Bristol
Mensa, 21 September 2009 Edwards has also participated in a grand final of '' Fifteen to One'', and appeared in both series of '' Are You an Egghead?'', reaching the final of series two but coming second to fellow '' Mastermind'' and '' Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' winner

. He has won the British Quizzing Championships for pairs in 2008 and 2010 with his partner Nic Paul. Broadcast on 30 March 2012, he appeared on the quiz show Champions special edition of ''

The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...

'', competing against other winners of major UK quiz shows including Chris Hughes and fellow WWTBAM winner Judith Keppel. He was voted off in Round 6 with 2 votes. In the 7 September 2016 edition of '' Make Me an Egghead'', he lost to Terry Toomey in the final round, despite having two Eggheads to help him to Toomey's one. Edwards had the two strongest eggheads – Kevin Ashman and

on his side. However, neither could help him on two questions, both of which he got wrong.

International quizzing

Edwards has been a member of the Welsh National Quiz Team since its inception. Since 2008 Edwards has been the Captain of the national side, and in 2010 led Wales to its highest ever finish in the European Championships (4th).

References

External links

How I made a million – The Guardian

David Edwards – Quiz Players
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, David Living people Contestants on British game shows Alumni of Keele University 1947 births