Jan Flemr - buying an unusual site with game show winnings
In recent years Czech versions of hit television programmes from the West have proved hugely popular. Among them are "The Weakest Link" and the latest big success, the Czech version of "Pop Idol". But the first of this wave of international programmes to make a big impact in the Czech Republic was "Milionar", which you may know as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Jan Flemr appeared on "Milionar" three years ago, stalling at the final question but still taking home half a million crowns. Here he recalls the experience, and the question which stumped him.
"I remember the last one. It was who wrote a symphony for, I don't know what, bassoon and something else. The funny part was that I had to ask a friend on the phone, which was my uncle, and he didn't know, he wasn't sure, while my father, who was another one in the selection, he did know, from school. And it turned out it was the uncle of Julius Fucik or somebody who wrote the symphony.
"Obviously I had so much money that I decided to give up then. I'd never had so much money...in my pocket, basically. So, I gave in.
"Another question was the state of the USA with the highest population. I had to go for the fifty-fifty option there, because I wasn't sure. I heard a better one last week, which was worth a million, and that was the name of an actor who lived next door to my parents. That was pretty easy, but unfortunately I had to get stuck with the Fucik question.
"I spent the money on a plot of land, which is a former tennis court that used to belong to the grandmother of Martina Navratilova. I was told this was the very site where Martina Navratilova started her career. It's near Prague.
"I'm not going to follow my uncle's advice to reconstruct it as a tennis court and collect money from people who would come over there and play tennis, hoping to get as good as Navratilova some day, perhaps. I'm going to build a house there. I already have the project, I already have the permit, and hopefully next year we'll move there from an ugly house in Prague."
