Worthing man faces Anne Robinson's wrath

Father John McCormack was the last contestant standing and scooped the winner’s prize fund of £3,100 when the programme aired the week before last (September 14).

He said: “I have always watched the programme. It’s something light-hearted that stimulates the brain and, one day at the end of one of the shows, Anne Robinson turned to the camera and said, ‘Do you think you can do better?’, so I applied.

“I didn’t hear anything until two years later when the producers asked me to take part.”

Fr John, 52, attended the three-hour filming of The Weakest Link in Glasgow in March. He was part of a team of nine contestants who took turns to answer quickfire general knowledge questions, with the aim of answering questions correctly and banking the accumulated money. At the end of each round, contestants vote one player out of the game.

Fr John, who lives in Columbia Walk, Durrington, said: “I was amazed I could answer my questions and wasn’t voted off.

“It was quite nerve-wracking in front of the cameras and lights, but it was huge fun and one of the most exciting experiences I have had.”

One of the questions Fr John answered incorrectly was to name the part of a daffodil named after part of an orchestra.

He answered horn instead of trumpet.

“It was a great experience,” he said, “and I got to meet Anne Robinson, who really is the way she appears on the show.”

Fr John spent the majority of his winnings getting to Malta to be made one of the Knights Hospitaller, an ancient chivalry under the Order of St John.

The minister added: “Membership of the order is normally offered to people who have some connection to relief of suffering or pain through a connection to a hospital or hospice.

“As I was chaplain of St Barnabas House hospice for nearly 12 years, I was given the order.

“It was a great honour.”

Fr John now conducts funerals and wedding blessings for people who do not have formal connections with a church.