Meet the board game fanatic who has appeared on 32 quiz shows

A quiz show fanatic who has banked thousands of pounds in prize money says he has no plans to quit while he's ahead.

Retired maths teacher Cornelius O'Donovan, from Thirsk, has appeared on 32 TV quiz shows in 30 years and says he is "absolutely hooked" on them.

He began a lifelong love of quizzing when playing board game Trivial Pursuit in the 1980s, and has since gone on to face down Anne Robinson in The Weakest Link and take on the Chasers.

He enters into the spirit with brightly coloured outfits and his laugh, likened to that of actor Brian Blessed, is a hit with audiences.

The secret to his success is "to know as much as you can about as much as is out there," he says.

His first appearance was on Say the Word in 1997, and other credits include Pass the Buck, Breakaway and Two Tribes.

Cornelius says his favourite host was Bradley Walsh on The Chase in 2009 because "he did his best to put all the contestants at their ease" and has "grown with the show".

He would even consider becoming one of the Chasers himself in future.

An avid collector of Trivial Pursuit editions, Cornelius says the board game has helped him accrue knowledge.

"Different versions have different questions in - I particularly like the style of questions in Trivial Pursuit," he says.

Asked whether he finds the questions difficult, he says: "Not now, no - because very often I would remember a question for my wrong answer to it, rather than the right answer.

"It takes a while to get through 6,000 questions and answers and to remember the right answer, rather than the wrong answer."

Cornelius has earned £17,500 in prize money from his attempts, but has never "won big" and regrets never being accepted onto Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

"I think most people who haven't been on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? would have loved the opportunity, and I spent a lot of money trying to get on when we used to have to make a telephone call back in the late 1990s, to no avail."

He is getting close to the record set for the most appearances, being just two short of David St John's 34, which was verified in London in 2014.

"I hope to beat the record one day, but a lot of the shows now have a push for new, younger players."

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