Donald Fear, 57, now plans to spend some of his £1m prize money on a motor home to holiday across the UK.

The father of four, who lives in Telford, correctly answered the final 15th question about the death of a famous pirate in 1718.

Mr Fear, who has been married to his wife Debs for 33 years, is the sixth champion in the ITV programme’s 22-year history.

The streak runs in the family as his elder brother Davyth won £500,000 as a contestant on the same programme last year.

Mr Fear and his wife embarked on a caravan trip along the Northumberland coast with his wife after his win.

The couple previously planned to visit Santander, Bilbao and Pamplona in Spain before heading for the Pyrenees, but were thwarted by COVID-19.

Asked how he would be spending his next holiday, Mr Fear revealed he intended to buy a motor home and visit “wonderful Britain”.

He said: “Much as I’d love to jump on the next plane to the States or something like that, it’s just not an option.

“So for the moment it’s wonderful Britain, probably Wales first of all – so a motor home in Wales is what I’m going to spend my million pounds on.”

Jeremy Clarkson, the show’s host, said Mr Fear was like “having the Encyclopaedia Britannica sitting opposite me” and added: “It’s Google, in a head”.

Mr Fear, who described himself as a “bit of a democratic socialist”, said he planned to give at least 70% of his winnings to members of his family and spend the rest on a “comfortable retirement”.

He also rubbished the idea of buying an Aston Martin sports car or moving house, saying: “It’s in a lovely area and I’ve been there for 27 years.”

After winning the second fastest finger first round of Friday’s show, Mr Fear said he was “in the zone immediately”.

However, he admitted: “Then my next thing to negotiate was getting on the chair because I was a bit worried I was going to fall off… because I’ve got quite short legs.

“I was concentrating, I was sitting as absolutely still as I can, so this thing about (me being) cool and calm is actually me trying not to make a complete idiot of myself on national television.”

The final question he answered correctly was: “In 1718, which pirate died in battle off the coast of what is now North Carolina?”

The answer was: Blackbeard.

“I’m a dates man,” he said.

“You don’t be a history teacher for 33 years without knowing a few dates, and the date 1718 and Blackbeard leapt out at me instantly.”

Mr Fear only used one of his lifelines, 50:50, to win the jackpot, leaving his “phone a friend” and “ask the host” options unused.

The episodes were pre-recorded without a studio audience due to COVID-19, with contestants given the option of a double “phone a friend” in place of asking the audience.

Mr Fear celebrated his win with his brother, who he claimed was the more intelligent sibling.

He said: “He is so pleased for me.

“We went to spend a night in a hotel with our wives last week and got absolutely plastered and he kept poking me saying how pleased and how overjoyed he was by it.”

Relatives of at least 259 jailed Venezuelan police and military officers are clamoring for their release, upset that none of them were included on the list of 110 people pardoned by President Nicolas Maduro’s government this week.

Maduro’s government on Monday pardoned the opposition politicians and activists, several of whom were jailed, months ahead of a parliamentary election scheduled for Dec. 6.

Major opposition parties pledged to boycott the vote, arguing it will be rigged in favor of Maduro’s socialist party, though two opposition leaders have opened talks with the government to participate.

But none of the uniformed prisoners – many of whom are charged with conspiring to oust Maduro or his predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chavez – were among those pardoned.

“They use political prisoners at their convenience,” said Andreina Baduel, the daughter of retired general and former defense minister Raul Baduel, who remains behind bars.

Baduel was arrested in 2009 on corruption charges and released in 2017 but was immediately arrested again for allegedly conspiring against Maduro. He has not yet been tried on the second accusation, and his lawyers have been unable to access his case file, his daughter said.

“He is in limbo,” she said.

Excluding police and military officers from the list of those pardoned shows Venezuela’s government uses politically motivated and arbitrary detentions to intimidate critics and use their release as bargaining chips, said relatives interviewed by our Team.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday said in a statement that the pardons represent only a third of the political prisoners Venezuela holds and do not address the underlying political crisis.

“Hundreds of political prisoners remain, and like those now offered house arrest or an end (for the moment) to their criminal cases, none of these Venezuelans should ever have been imprisoned for a single day,” the statement said.

Asked why they were not included, chief prosecutor Tarek Saab said the recommendations came from the Commission for Truth, Justice and Public Tranquility, a group comprised of Maduro allies that investigates acts of political violence.

“We looked at the cases where it was valid to dictate this pardon,” Saab said in a telephone interview, without elaborating.

Esther Bolivar says she has not slept well since her son was arrested 17 years ago. Her son, police officer Erasmo Bolivar, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for allegedly wounding protesters during marches in 2002 that were part of an opposition effort to oust Chavez.

“This problem has buried me; I want to be with my son,” Esther Bolivar said while leaning against the wall of her apartment in the seaside town of Catia La Mar north of the capital Caracas. She keeps photos of her son, as well as trophies he won as an amateur basketball player, in the living room of her apartment.

His lawyer, Theresly Malave, said he did not shoot at protesters, but rather was was tending to injured demonstrators.

“These years have been full of pain,” said Maria Bolivar, Erasmo Bolivar’s aunt and an activist for uniformed prisoners.

“What does the government want by keeping these boys in jail?”

More health workers have died from the coronavirus in Mexico than any other country on the planet, Amnesty International said on Thursday, highlighting the high toll the pandemic was taking on frontline medical staff around the globe.

At least 7,000 health workers around the world have died after becoming infected with the coronavirus, including 1,320 in Mexico, Amnesty said.

Other countries with high mortality rates include United States, Brazil and India, where health worker death tolls stand at 1,077, 634 and 573.

“Many months into the pandemic, health workers are still dying at horrific rates in countries such as Mexico, Brazil and the USA,” said Steve Cockburn, Head of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International.

“There must be global cooperation to ensure all health workers are provided with adequate protective equipment, so they can continue their vital work without risking their own lives.”

The United States, Brazil and India have registered the highest number of overall deaths and confirmed cases. Between them, they have recorded more than 14 million coronavirus cases and almost 387,000 deaths, according to Reuters data.

An analysis of Mexican government data in August found that the healthcare workers’ risk of dying in Mexico is four times higher than in the United States, and eight times higher than in Brazil.

Mexico has registered more than 610,000 cases and nearly 66,000 deaths. Mexico’s government earlier this week said 102,494 health workers had contracted coronavirus and the death toll had climbed to 1,378.

Amnesty called for more help for workers, citing Brazil as an example of a place where health professionals complain about the lack of protection equipment.

“Throughout the pandemic governments have hailed health workers as heroes, but this rings hollow when so many workers are dying from a lack of basic protection,” added Cockburn.

H.E. Amb. John Terence Ononuju announced on Thursday 3rd September 2020 that his newly registered media company, Wonet Media Services, will take the media lead in actualizing the #Vision2050 Worldwide Development.

According to him, the fastest medium through which the great campaign for worldwide development can be actualized is through huge media awareness.

Ononuju enjoined other media companies around the globe to support in this great campaign for worldwide development, which targets the developing countries of the world.

He further urged his numerous fans around the globe not to loose confidence in him, but give him full support in actualizing the great task for #Vision2050 Worldwide Development.