The Win

Dominic Arkwright meets another person who's made or received a life-changing phone call.

Some people cry, some feel sick, some throw a 24-hour party, and some are millionaires already.

Winning the lottery can be a traumatic event, but what's it like for the people on the other end of the line?

Dominic talks to the operators on Camelot's lottery claim line, and discovers that even really good news can be quite a shock to the system.

He hears about the winner who hid his ticket in a sponge cake for security reasons; the woman who sat and stared at her ticket for three hours before making the call, and the millionaire who calmly announced the win would come in useful to put a swimming pool in his country estate.

Producer: John Byrne

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2009.