Darren Jones, of Burnmill Road, and colleague Tim Griffin, both firefighters serving at Hinckley Station, each received a cheque for £75,000 from presenter Chris Tarrant after successfully answering nine questions in a row.

The pair appeared in a ‘firefighters special’ episode of the popular quiz, broadcast at 8pm on Tuesday last week, but filmed in February this year.

And the firefighting duo have Market Harborough Drama Society stalwart Jan Wilson to thank for helping them to the impressive total after she got them out of a spot in her role as their ‘phone a friend’.

Their question for the £50,000 prize – ‘What nationality was the playwright Henrik Ibsen? – had both stumped until they phoned Mrs Wilson for the answer.

The pair had originally asked former Great Bowden Primary School head Liz Howe to act as one of their five ‘phone-a-friends’ but Miss Howe suggested Mrs Wilson to them.

Mrs Wilson, of Hunters Close, Husbands Bosworth, said: “He [Mr Jones] gave me a call and asked if I’d do it. I said no but he said the chances of me getting a call were so remote and I agreed.

“The TV studio phoned to make sure I would be close to the phone for the next couple of hours and to sound surprised if they called. They first phoned at about 6.55pm and then at 7.02pm I got a call so I put my posh voice on but it was just a friend phoning for a chat. I said I had to put the phone down because I was waiting for this call but then it rang again and I picked it up thinking it would be my friend again but it was Chris Tarrant.

“I knew the answer immediately – Ibsen was Norwegian – but the worst part was when Darren asked ‘how sure are you?’.”

Mrs Wilson stuck to her guns and the pair were able to answer the question correctly, going on to score another two correct answers before walking away with the money.

Mrs Wilson said Mr Jones visited her shortly after the show to say thank you and to give her a present of theatre tickets.