FOR millions of people the TV quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is compulsive viewing.

To sit with a good percentage of the rest of the nation in pitting your general knowledge skills alongside the contestant under the spotlight, or sitting on the edge of your settee willing the show host to get a move on, has become a favourite pastime.

This week was especially interesting for many locals because the man in the hot seat was a local lad, now exiled in Yorkshire, who started his newspaper career as a reporter on the Leigh Journal.

John Sexton didn't let the side down. There were a few shakes when the stakes started to get higher but generally he gave a dignified and accomplished performance which netted him a whopping £250,000.

Horse racing tipster John had the courage to cool his gambling instinct on the brink of joining the millionaire set. With £250,000 in the bag he showed commendable resistance to greed and the urge to "go for it" when the half million pound question proved a stumbling block.

In everyday life John has done well and, no doubt, if he'd have gone home with a £1,000 consolation cheque tucked in his wallet, it wouldn't have meant the end of the world.

But his decision to stick rather than risk losing most of what he'd got presents a useful lesson for all of us.