Northampton friends who met at the school gates take part in £100k Drop

Tricha Smith, 63, of Cogenhoe and Yvonne Jinks, 63, of Great Houghton first applied to be a part of the show, presented by Davina McCall, back in July, before a series of phone calls and interviews.

After a successful audition in Birmingham the pals, who can't yet reveal if they won the jackpot, said they were pleased that they didn't lose all of their money in the first round.

Players start the £100k Drop with £100,000 between them and pairs must avoid the wrong answers or else they are eliminated, and their money is dropped, from the game.

"We didn't make idiots of ourselves," said Tricha.

"We were desperate not to go out on the first question and we didn't."

The pair, filmed the show in Manchester's Media City, where shows including Jeremy Kyle, Judge Rinder and Mastermind are produced.

"From start to finish we were looked after really well and the crew were so good to us," Yvonne said.

"We are going to watch it together and probably behind a cushion with a big glass of red wine. I can't imagine what it will be like to see us.

"We had good fun on it and Davina was brilliant with us. There were about 100 in the audience, it was quite intimate and close, so you do feel involved."

Tricha and Yvonne first met about 30 years ago, at the school gates, when their daughters started at Hackleton Primary School before they both went on to The Elizabeth Woodville School in Roade.

"Trich and I just clicked at the school gate and we formed a friendship," Yvonne added.

"We did tap dancing together for many many years and we started up a line dancing class together."