Jeremy Clarkson was left gobsmacked during a celebrity edition of ITV‘s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – all thanks to an unexpected confession from presenter Steph McGovern.
The 43-year-old TV host took to the famous hot seat for the show’s charity special and stunned Jeremy when she revealed she helped develop a staple of British garden sheds – the humble leaf blower.
Before the quizzing even began, Clarkson’s Farm star Jeremy couldn’t resist digging into Steph’s surprising CV – and he was seriously impressed.
He said: ‘I was looking at your notes, obviously, business and economics you’re known for, but you’re also a champion Irish dancer and a novelist, and a journalist, and most important of all, an engineer by trade.
‘And you developed the leaf blower! Couldn’t you have made it electric?’
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Jeremy Clarkson was left gobsmacked during a celebrity edition of ITV’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – all thanks to an unexpected confession from presenter Steph McGovern
The TV host, 43, took to the famous hot seat for the show’s charity special and stunned Jeremy when she revealed she helped develop a staple of British garden sheds – the humble leaf blower
Steph explained that during her time at Black+Decker over 20 years ago, an electric version wasn’t an option at the time.
Working on the company’s Leaf Hog as part of a Six Sigma team, she helped save the firm £150,000 by improving manufacturing techniques.
Jeremy typically joked: ‘There’s nothing more annoying, am I right, than somebody else’s leaf blower?’
Before her TV career took off, Steph was a trailblazer in engineering. She won the prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship in 1998 and was crowned Young Engineer for Britain a year later.
Her Millionaire appearance, which was a repeat from earlier this year, wasn’t just impressive for her backstory, but also saw her raise a huge sum for charity.
Steph walked away with a whopping £150,000 for Rubies, a Middlesbrough-based organisation supporting young girls.
‘I am happily gonna take the money and am not gonna carry on, if that’s okay’, she told Jeremy, wisely bowing out before risking a tricky £250,000 question.
The charity, which Steph has supported for over five years, helps create ‘unforgettable’ experiences for girls, including trips to TV studios with Steph herself.
He said: ‘I was looking at your notes, obviously, business and economics you’re known for, but you’re also a champion Irish dancer and a novelist, and a journalist, and most important of all, an engineer by trade, and you developed the leaf blower!’
But the same couldn’t be said for fellow celeb contestant Anton Du Beke, who left viewers cringing after a brutal blunder.
The Strictly Come Dancing star was stumped by the question: ‘Which Tony Award-winning musical features a mash-up called ‘Elephant Love Medley’?’
He guessed The Book of Mormon – but the correct answer was Moulin Rouge, leaving him with just £1,000 for his chosen charity, The Sick Children’s Trust.
Fans were quick to roast the slip-up on social media.
One user wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘The audience are absolute FOOLS and so is Anton Du Beke. Surely this is his wheelhouse??’;
‘That mishap means Anton is only taking £1k for his charity… ouch.’
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? airs on ITV on Sundays at 8pm.
