A BLACKPOOL man at the centre of a catalogue on TV's a Who Wants To be A Millionaire quiz show - can keep his £125,000 prize money.

Warehouseman Tony Kennedy equalled the highest ever paid out on any British quiz show, even though he wrongly answered a question.

Tony, 29, then found himself the centre of controversy between Carlton TV, the programme makers Celador Productions, the quiz show's producers - and tennis enthusiasts.

Already on £32,000, host Chris Tarrant asked Tony: "Theoretically, what is the minimum number of strokes with which a tennis player can win a set?"

Joking that he wasn't built for tennis, Tony, from South Shore, answered 24.

With all the show's usual delayed drama, Tony had to wait before the computer confirmed his answer to be correct, doubling his winnings to £64,000. However, calls flooded in to the programme which was watched by 18.8 million people on Sunday night (March 7), to say the right answer was 12 strokes.

Theoretically, a player could serve aces in three service games winning by 12 strokes if the opposing player double faulted on every point in his service games.

Tony, from South Shore, had to wait before his winnings could be banked. Celebrating at home with his six-months pregnant wife, Julie, two-year-old son Kieran and other family members on Monday (March 8) night, Tony received a phone call from the producers warning him about his controversial answer.

He said at the time he went from being the most elated man in Britain to feeling shattered.

Now ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has apologised for the human error, but confirmed that Tony's £125,000 windfall would be honoured.

Executive producer Paul Smith from Celador Productions said:" The mistake got through despite the question being checked by three separate people against three separate sources.

"We have now strengthened our checking procedure."

A PR company acting for Celador Productions said rumours of sackings were "pure speculation".

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