Who Wants to be a Millionaire? winner Den Hewitt knew what his eliminator question would be before he even got on the hit show.

Civil servant Den, 42, walked away with £250,000 on Tuesday after being helped to his fortune by a spooky premonition.

After applying to be on the show, he had dreamt that he would be asked the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Astonishingly, the next day he was phoned by a researcher who asked him the same question as part of the programme's selection process for contestants.

By then, Den, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, could tell the researcher the height was 986ft after looking up the answer in a book before he got the call.

A spokesman for the ITV show said: "It is an amazing story and Chris Tarrant hasn't shut up about it since the show was filmed."

Den sailed through Monday night's show reaching £16,000 with all three lifelines intact. On £125,000 he phoned pal John Robinson, from Darlington, who told him the artist Mondrian was Dutch.

Den knew that Noah's Ark was made of Gopher Wood for £250,000, but backed out of taking a chance on the £500,000 question.

He guessed the right answer Latvian to the question: "Which language is known as Lettish", but decided not to risk it and walked away with the cash.

Den, who works for the Department of Education, is not planning to give up his job but he will buy a dream home and car.