Some of the most memorable TV show contestants from Suffolk

Contestants from the county have appeared on everything from quiz shows to talent contests.

Here are five of the most memorable moments from when Suffolk contestants competed on the small screen.

1. Alex Wilson from Capel St Mary beating the chasers

Alex Wilson beats the chasers (Image: Archant)

At the age of just 22, Capel St Mary student nurse Alex Wilson managed to become the first contestant to win the ITV show, Beat the Chasers.

Facing off against three of the show's expert quizzers, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan and Shaun Wallace, Alex managed to scoop the £25,000 prize.

Upon her victory, Alex screamed, “we are going to the Maldives!” at her friends and family in the audience.

2. Army officer Erica Roberts from Bury St Edmunds gets stuck at £16,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Erica Roberts won £16,000 before losing out to a really difficult question (Image: @MillionaireUK)

Facing down Jeremy Clarkson in 2019, army officer Erica Roberts won her turn in the hot seat after getting the quickest time of 2.33 seconds in the fastest finger first question.

Erica, from Bury St Edmunds, had to put the words 'love, war, fair and all' into the correct order of the well-known phrase.

However, when she got into the game she struggled, using her ask the audience lifeline at £2,000.

The final straw came when the Grand Tour host asked her to name a photographer best known for hard-hitting images of war zones and working-class life in the UK.

Erica decided to leave with her £16,000.

See if you can do better than Erica on our quiz.

3. Jon Courtenay wins Britain's Got Talent

Jon went to the Royal Hospital School in Holbrook as a child and grew up in Ipswich and Martlesham Heath. (Image: DYMOND)

In 2020 Jon Courtenay impressed the country, the town and Ant and Dec when he won Britain's Got Talent, scooping up a prize of £250,000 and a spot performing in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Show.

Jon grew up in Ipswich and Martlesham and attended the Royal Hospital School in Holbrook.

He wasn't the only Suffolk act on the show in that year either – 10-year-old Souparnika Nair, a pupil at Sebert Wood Community Primary School in Bury St Edmunds, made it through to the semi-final stage.

4. Rory from Ipswich loses out on £60,000 on The Chase

Ipswich man Rory tries to take on The Beast on ITV's The Chase (Image: Picture: ITV)

Despite oozing confidence and gathering £4,000 in his cash builder round, Rory from Ipswich never stood a chance competing against The Chase's famed Mark "The Beast" Labbett.

While Rory managed to start the chase well, he stumbled on the third and fourth questions, which asked about the anniversary of the Nato military alliance and the TV programme The Virginian, allowing the chaser to overtake.

He therefore went home with nothing.

5. Emily from Cavendish hid the money on Bear Grylls Treasure Island

Emily from Cavendish appeared on a show with Bear Grylls (Image: PA Media)

Suffolk dental nurse and mother-of-two Emily was marooned on a desert island in 2019, along with eleven other contestants and £100,000.

But when the chance came to collaborate, instead she and some of the other contestants hid the money they had found.

Speaking to Channel 4 after the show, Emily said: "It was unlikely I was going to share any money I found with anyone else on the island, my husband and I had spoken about this before I left and he was fully supportive of what I wanted to do."