GRANDFATHER Tom Lynch will go down in history as being the victim of the biggest gaffe in the history of the award-winning show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

But the Prestwich quiz fan and his daughter, Suzanne Barton, said they are happy with their share of £1,000 winnings. Sixty-eight-year-old Tom, of High View Terrace, missed out on a television fortune when he appeared on the show earlier this month.

The father and daughter team were "going great guns" and had reached £8,000 when they were faced with a tricky question.

Unsure of the correct answer, Tom and Suzanne (45), who recently moved to Croydon from Heaton Park, turned to the audience for advice.

But an amazing 80 per cent of the crowd, who Chris Tarrant later jokingly described as "idiots", voted for the WRONG answer.

"There was a gasp from the audience when they realised what they had done," said Tom, "and Chris Tarrant turned round and called them a bunch of idiots!

"He was joking of course and they edited it out for the show but he really couldn't believe it.

"He said it was the biggest vote they'd had for the wrong answer."

The question that stumped the pair was extremely ambiguous and Tom admits that even he thought the correct answer was what the audience had voted for.

The £16,000 question was: What vehicle does a postilion ride? Suzanne and Tom decided the answer was between a stagecoach and a horse (the latter being correct) after dismissing the alternatives of a motorcycle and a penny farthing.

Said Tom, who has four children and nine grandchildren: "My gut feeling was a horse but I had this mental picture of a man standing up at the back of a mail coach announcing the arrival of the post, and I said this out loud.

"Perhaps the audience were influenced by what I had said.

"I was a bit sickened," added Tom, who loves to watch quizzes on television and used to be a keen pub player with his wife Maureen. Ironically their team name was The Winners.

He went on: "We were going great guns and the floor manager said she thought we were going to win big money. We went up to £125,000 in rehearsals. I went home a very despondent and perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut!"

"But we had a great day and we had our 15 minutes of fame, so I am quite happy."

Suzanne had hoped to buy a camper van if she had won more but Tom said his share of the money would help to pay his caravan fees.