| “ | I did not cheat, if I can use that very firm expression to cover everything. I can't say that there wasn't coughing going on, but I did not either hear or use coughing as any form of mechanism for being able to answer those questions. | „ |
| ~ Charles Ingram claiming to not have cheated during an interview |
Charles Ingram and Chris Tarrant shortly after Ingram reached the jackpot of £1 million. He was later stripped of his winnings.
On 9 September 2001, Charles Ingram became a contestant on the ITV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, following his wife Diana and her brother Adrian Pollock, who had each won £32,000 as contestants on the show. To prepare, Ingram practised for about twenty minutes per day on a homemade "Fastest Finger First" machine. Ingram got into the "hot seat" but used two lifelines early, ending the day at £4,000 and with only the 50/50 lifeline remaining. The production team doubted he would proceed much further when filming resumed, but he surprised them and reached the jackpot of £1 million.
At the time of his appearance, Charles Ingram was a Major in the British Army. He and his wife Diana had debts of £50,000. They both entered TV quiz shows with Diana appearing on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? winning £32,000 and her brother also appearing separately, winning the same amount. The Ingrams had been contestants as a couple on the show but did not make it onto the hot seat. Charles entered the show on his own in 2001. By winning Fastest Finger First, he entered the game proper. During the first day of filming he made it to the £4,000 question but used up two of his three lifelines. Between the two days of filming, it is reported that Diana made contact with future contestant Tecwen Whittock to plan how to help Charles win £1 million. On the second day of filming, Charles entered saying he had a strategy for playing the rest of the game. The host Chris Tarrant stated that no-one on the production staff expected Charles to go much further as he had been struggling with the previous questions.
Suspicions arose during filming when loud coughing was heard to the correct answers. A sound technician called Celador's CEO to inform him of their suspicions and asked if filming should be stopped. He said "no", but that he would review the tapes after filming had finished for the day. Charles eventually won the million pounds and received a cheque for this amount signed by Tarrant, though it was retained by Celador for eight days for processing. The CEO, upon reviewing the tapes with the technicians, and playing devil's advocate with each cough heard, concluded there had been cheating and called the police. He later called Ingram and informed him of "irregularities in which you [Ingram] participated" and stated they would not be airing the programme or authorising payment of the cheque. Ingram responded stating "I completely refute that obviously".
By the time Ingram had left the set, the show's production company, Celador, began to receive allegations of irregularities occurring within the quiz and suspended the jackpot payout to investigate the matter. At the same time, Tarrant, overheard that the Ingrams had been arguing, despite Ingram's success, moments before Tarrant joined them in their dressing room for champagne; another member of the production team also noted a similar thought about the couple's behaviour. While reviewing the recording, the production team made a connection between Ingram's answers and coughs coming from Whittock; in another instance, the coughing came from Ingram's wife while she was in the audience. Based on this evidence, all three were accused of cheating, and the matter handed over to police to investigate further. Whittock and the Ingrams were eventually charged with "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception".
Charles Ingram's Run to the Million[]
On September 9th 2001, having practised with a Fastest Finger First button of his own invention, Charles Ingram quickly managed to get into the chair opposite Chris Tarrant for the big money prize. He said that the plan was to "get a million between them".
Fastest Finger First Question[]
| Fastest Finger First Question | |
| Put these words in the order they occur in the title of the Agatha Christie thriller. | |
| ⬥ A: Nile | ⬥ B: On |
| ⬥ C: Death | ⬥ D: The |
From the 8 remaining contestants, 7 got it right, but Charles (with a time of 3.97 seconds) was the fastest to correctly answer C-B-D-A, making it into the Hot Seat.
Charles's Run to the Million[]
Night 1[]
On the first night of his game, when he got into the hot seat, Charles got through the first four questions without using any lifelines. On the fifth question, he still didn't use a lifeline, but took a while to answer. On question 6, Charles used his Ask the Audience lifeline, and then used his Phone-a-Friend on question 7. After 7 questions, Charles won £4,000 but the klaxon called time, so he had to return the next day to continue, ending the day at £4,000 and with only the 50/50 lifeline remaining.
| £100 (1 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| On which of these would you air laundry? | |
| ⬥ A: Clothes dog | ⬥ B: Clothes horse |
| ⬥ C: Clothes rabbit | ⬥ D: Clothes pig |
| £200 (2 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| What name is given to a person who is against increasing the powers of the European Union? | |
| ⬥ A: Eurosceptic | ⬥ B: Eurostar |
| ⬥ C: Eurotrash | ⬥ D: Eurovision |
| £300 (3 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| What is butterscotch? | |
| ⬥ A: Shortbread | ⬥ B: Pavement game |
| ⬥ C: Garden flower | ⬥ D: Brittle toffee |
| £500 (4 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| Which of these is the nickname for a famous Scottish army regiment? | |
| ⬥ A: Black Cat | ⬥ B: Black Widow |
| ⬥ C: Black Sea | ⬥ D: Black Watch |
| £1,000 (5 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| The Normans, who invaded and conquered England in 1066, spoke which language? | |
| ⬥ A: German | ⬥ B: Norwegian |
| ⬥ C: French | ⬥ D: Danish |
| £2,000 (6 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| In 'Coronation Street', who is Audrey's daughter? "Ask the Audience" lifeline used. | |
| ⬥ A: Janice | ⬥ B: Gail |
| ⬥ C: Linda | ⬥ D: Sally |
| Ask the Audience Results: A: 4% ⬥ B: 89% ⬥ C: 3% ⬥ D: 4% | |
| Charles did not know, so he used his first lifeline, He asked the audience, which gave a resounding 4-89-3-4 vote. Charles went with the audience, and won £2,000. |
| £4,000 (7 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| The River Foyle is found in which part of the United Kingdom? "Phone-a-Friend" lifeline used. | |
| ⬥ A: England | ⬥ B: Scotland |
| ⬥ C: Northern Ireland | ⬥ D: Wales |
| Charles did not know, so he decided to phone his friend Gerald, who was 99% sure it was Northern Ireland. He went with him and won £4,000. After this question, the klaxon called time and Charles would return on £4,000 with 1 lifeline still available. |
Chris Tarrant stated that no-one on the production staff expected Charles to go much further as he had been struggling with the previous questions. Since Charles only had one lifeline left, Chris expected Charles to get to £16,000 and be on his way.
Meanwhile, Charles and his wife Diana (who accompanied Charles in the audience) called one of the Fastest Finger Contestants, Tecwen Whittock, who would appear on the next show that night. Diana later claimed she alone had spoken with him and purely to wish him good luck.
Night 2[]
Charles returns to Millionaire on his infamous second night.
On the next night, before starting the game, Chris asked Charles if he had a strategy. Charles said that he was a little defensive on the last show so he's "going on the counter-attack". Throughout his run, the production team grew more and more suspicious of Charles. He was taking brazen risks and playing the game in an unusual manner.
On nearly every question that night, he would try to say all four choices by giving a humorous comment on each of them. Then Tecwen, who was in the FFC seat right behind Charles, would cough immediately after Charles said a correct answer. Charles then inexplicably changed his answer to the correct one. This strategy worked throughout most of the night. Charles later claimed he did this strategy for drama and to "think without interruption".
However, during the later questions, Charles chose to play it safe and check around all the answers multiple times, leading to more constant coughing from Tecwen. Despite this Charles won the maximum prize of £1 million, but due to the coughing being obvious in the later questions and the irregularities in answering the questions, his cheque was cancelled.
| £8,000 (8 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| Who was the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy? | |
| ⬥ A: Adnan Khashoggi | ⬥ B: Ronald Reagan |
| ⬥ C: Aristotle Onassis | ⬥ D: Rupert Murdoch |
| Charles immediately thought it was Aristotle Onassis, and Tecwen coughed immediately after Charles said his name. After two coughs, Charles was confident and went for it. |
| £16,000 (9 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| Emmenthal is a cheese from which country? | |
| ⬥ A: France | ⬥ B: Italy |
| ⬥ C: Netherlands | ⬥ D: Switzerland |
| Charles immediately thought it was Switzerland, and went for it. This is the only question of the night that Charles knew the answer to without getting help from either Diana or Tecwen. |
| £32,000 (10 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| Who had a hit UK album with 'Born To Do It', released in 2000? "50:50" lifeline used | |
| ⬥ A: Coldplay | ⬥ B: Toploader |
| ⬥ C: A1 | ⬥ D: Craig David |
| Charles didn't know. After using his 50/50 the two remaining answers were A1 (what he thought the answer was) and Craig David, who he said he had never heard of.
Knowing that her every move was being recorded, Diana, who was in the audience, took a huge gamble and coughed when Charles was musing over Craig David, hinting that was the correct answer. After nearly locking in A1 as his final answer, he backed off and later said "80% of the time I'm wrong when I guess, so you know what—I'll go Craig David." He then locked in Craig David as his final answer, which was correct. |
Charles states he has "never heard of Craig David", but chooses him as the final answer at the last minute.
| £64,000 (11 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| Gentlemen v Players was an annual match between amateurs and professionals of which sport? | |
| ⬥ A: Lawn tennis | ⬥ B: Rugby Union |
| ⬥ C: Polo | ⬥ D: Cricket |
| As Charles played for more money, the coughs become more constant. Charles checked all the answers and two coughs from Tecwen told Charles it was Cricket. |
| £125,000 (12 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| 'The Ambassadors', in the National Gallery, is a painting by which artist? | |
| ⬥ A: Van Eyck | ⬥ B: Holbein |
| ⬥ C: Michelangelo | ⬥ D: Rembrandt |
| It took two coughs from Tecwen for Charles to be certain that it was Holbein. At this point, the gaps between Tecwen's coughing and Charles being certain of an answer started becoming shorter. The Millionaire production staff have stated that if Charles had chosen to walk away at that moment, he likely would have got away with it as they wouldn't have had much evidence that he was cheating.
However, despite it being believed that the Ingrams had chosen a point to stop, Charles chose to keep going. As a result, a lot more coughs were caught on tape, with Tecwen starting coughing more constantly from this point, providing the Millionaire production staff with enough evidence to prove Charles, Tecwen, and Diana were cheating. |
Charles during the 12th question. At this point, the gaps between Tecwen's coughing and Charles being certain of an answer started becoming shorter.
| £250,000 (13 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| What type of garment is an Anthony Eden? | |
| ⬥ A: Overcoat | ⬥ B: Hat |
| ⬥ C: Shoe | ⬥ D: Tie |
This was another question where Tecwen did not know the answer, so he decided to ask one of the Fastest Finger Contestants next to him if he knew. The contestant Tecwen asked was Tom Lucy, who started becoming suspicious after Tecwen asked him. Tom thought that Tecwen turned towards him and asked him just for something to say but once Charles made it to the million, as Tom knew the answer to both the £250,000 and £1,000,000 questions, he knew exactly what was going on for sure.
On this question, it took three coughs from Tecwen this time instead of two for Charles to choose the correct answer. |
| £500,000 (14 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| Baron Haussmann is best known for his planning of which city? | |
| ⬥ A: Rome | ⬥ B: Paris |
| ⬥ C: Berlin | ⬥ D: Athens |
| Charles immediately thought it was Berlin simply because he thought Baron Haussmann was a German name. Chris Tarrant replied by saying "Charles, ten minutes ago, you thought it was A1." He forgot to slowly say all the answers, not giving Tecwen a chance to help. Tecwen then took a huge risk by coughing and loudly whispering 'No!'. He broke the code by creating a signal that meant that Charles was about to give an incorrect answer. But Charles continued to think it was Berlin, so Tecwen made a new signal, a nose-blow, trying to tell Charles that it was the all-stop signal. When Charles rules out Paris, Tecwen coughed hinting that it was correct, stopping Charles mid-sentence. Charles once again thought it was Berlin, and Tecwen once again did his all-stop signal.
All the noise Tecwen was making started drawing the attention of a contestant named Larry Whitehurst who started to wonder if he was sending Charles a signal. Larry did not know the answer but carefully listened as Charles was checking around all the answers; and when he said Paris, he heard Tecwen's cough which made him suspicious. After saying Paris two more times, and hearing two more coughs from Tecwen, Charles finally went with Paris. This made a total of four coughs and two nose-blows in a single question. Nobody inside the studio was aware that Charles was cheating except for Tom, Larry, Steve Carroll and future contestant and top prize winner Robert Brydges. |
During the 14th question, Charles was helped by Tecwen Whittock saying "No!" and doing nose-blow signals.
| £1,000,000 (15 of 15) - Not Timed | |
| A number one followed by one hundred zeros is known by what name? | |
| ⬥ A: Googol | ⬥ B: Megatron |
| ⬥ C: Gigabit | ⬥ D: Nanomole |
Larry knew the answer before the four choices came up, so he was really able to eavesdrop on the private conversation between Charles and Tecwen. Tecwen once again turned to his left and asked Tom if he knew the answer.
Tecwen now had the million pound answer. Charles thought it was Nanomole. He said that he never heard of a Googol (although he should have known that the name for the internet search engine Google is derived from the word googol), but Tecwen had, so he coughed. Larry was waiting for Tecwen to cough after Charles said Googol; and as soon as he did, Tecwen coughed and Larry figured out the cheating plan. At the same time, Larry did not want him to cough, but he did because he wanted to confirm his suspicion. Charles then visited all the answers again to check with Tecwen. Although he'd never heard of a Googol, he was actually thinking it was, even though he'd just thought moments before that it was a Nanomole. As he says Googol again, Tecwen coughs a second time. Chris Tarrant mentions "That's sort of how we got to Craig David! You went for him because you've never ever heard of him." reminding Charles that he was going for the one he never heard of, just because he had never heard of it. Charles shortly after he reached the jackpot of £1 million. He was later stripped of his winnings. Charles then checked all the answers a third time and on Googol, Tecwen coughed for the last time. After saying Googol one last time, Charles finally played Googol as his final answer. |
Charles claims to have "never heard of a googol" but chooses it as his answer.
Charles asked Chris not to go for a break, but he did. After coming back, Chris recapped exactly how Charles approached the million pound question. He tore up the cheque for £500,000, and announced that he just won a million pounds, becoming the third recorded contestant to ever do so. Immediately after his win, Chris Tarrant called him "the most amazing contestant we have ever, ever had".
Suspicion of Cheating[]
By the time Ingram had left the set, the show's production company, Celador, began to receive allegations of irregularities occurring within the quiz and suspended the jackpot payout to investigate the matter. While reviewing the recording, the production staff noted that Ingram initially favoured an incorrect answer for each question, and also made a connection between Fastest Finger First contestant Tecwen Whittock's coughing and Ingram's answers. They also noticed that Ingram's wife Diana had coughed before Ingram changed his answer on the £32,000 question. Believing that cheating had occurred, the production company Celador withheld the winnings, suspended the broadcast of Ingram's run, and reported the incident to police. Both the Ingrams and Whittock were charged with "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception", and taken to Southwark Crown Court in 2003.
Trial[]
Charles and Diana Ingram shortly before their trial.
The defendants each pleaded not guilty to the charge of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception. The Crown Court trial was presided by Judge Geoffrey Revlin and became known as "The Millionaire Trial". The case soon had to be restarted; the judge discharged the whole jury after one juror fell ill saying, "I cannot have a jury of only 11 members at the beginning of a trial such as this". The prosecution first accused the Ingrams of using pagers hidden on Charles' body on the first day of filming which would vibrate at the correct answer and adduced records from Diana's mobile phone to Whittock's.
The prosecution called a contestant, Larry Whitehurst, who stated that he had been watching Whittock from across the studio in his Fastest Finger First (FFF) seat, had noticed his pattern of coughing, and had suspicions that he was involved in cheating. He claimed that when it came to the £1 million question, Ingram was waiting for Whittock to cough when "googol" was mentioned; he coughed as he had predicted.
Chris Tarrant was called to the stand. He stated that he had not noticed anything amiss during the filming and had not heard any coughing. He said that following the win the Ingrams had been behaving "as normal as people who had just won £1m would be in that situation." He also said that he would not have signed the cheque if he had had suspicions of cheating and was "shocked" when he heard about the allegations.
The floor manager stated that the production staff had taken the unusual step of having Charles searched after the recording because they were suspicious he was cheating using hidden pagers, but nothing was found. A sound analyst affirmed that 192 coughs were heard during the filming and the sound supervisor said 19 "significant" coughs had come from near a live microphone which he believed to be one of the FFF microphones on the side where Whittock was sitting. The supervisor also claimed that she had noticed the Ingrams' attitudes change in their dressing rooms after the win going from a mood of elation to them having an argument.
Charles at a news conference in central London in September 2001, speaking his £1million prize was suspended.
Charles took the stand and repudiated allegations of a change in attitude after winning. He claimed he knew all the answers except the final one where he relied on his maths and physics A-levels for the answer. He stated that the only outside interference that had influenced his decision was on question 10 where the audience gasped loudly at one of his proposed answers. When he was shown a recording of question 14 where a cough was heard and followed by a whispered "No!" after Charles had mentioned he was going to give Berlin as his answer, members of the public in the gallery started laughing which led to the judge threatening to clear the courtroom. Charles was asked by Crown Prosecutor Nicholas Hilliard why he changed his mind. He responded by talking about knowing that Paris was a planned city for economic reasons after the Napoleonic Wars. He said he was devastated when he had heard of Diana's calls to Whittock. He said that after the allegations becoming public he had started taking medicine as his car had been vandalised, his cat shot at, and "cheat" shouted at him in public. His commander when he served in Bosnia appeared as a character witness for him and said that he had been an officer of the utmost integrity and complete honesty. Diana then took the stand and stated that she believed that Charles had succeeded by his risk-taking strategy. She also denied claims by the prosecution about using pagers and plotting with Whittock to cough at the right answers. She said that the pager records were from her brother's pager; she claimed that he had "disappeared" due to issues with banks and was using his pager to keep in contact with her. Diana's brother, Marcus Powell, did attend the first day of recording, where he was seen using his mobile phone outside the studio three times and was told to stop by production crew.
Illustration of Tecwen Whittock, Diana and Charles Ingram at the trial.
When he took the stand, Whittock put his coughing down to hay fever and a dust allergy, saying it was a coincidence the coughs coincided with the correct answers. When asked why his cough apparently disappeared when he played his game of Millionaire straight afterwards, he said he drank several glasses of water in the intermission. He recalled that Tarrant had said to him before filming "Don't forget to drink your water and use your lifelines." Following this, Whittock's doctor and a number of his friends took to the stand and affirmed Whittock had a persistent cough and that drinking water did help relieve it. He also stated that the phone call between his and Diana's phones lasted less than five minutes. The defence questioned why their client would agree to such a quickly devised scheme, particularly as Whittock would have told him might not be reliable as he could cough at any time.
During the trial, Whittock portrayed himself as a "serial quiz show loser" because he had been eliminated in round one of Channel 4's Fifteen to One, had also failed on ITV's The People Versus and had been able to win only an atlas on his appearance on ITV's Sale of the Century. He had also done poorly on the BBC radio quiz show Brain of Britain.
Verdict[]
After a delay in the summing up speeches due to coughing jurors, the judge asked the jury if Charles Ingram was "a genuine millionaire or a fraudster". One juror was later discharged for an unknown reason. The jury initially declared that they found Charles and Whittock guilty but Diana not guilty. The judge said that was not an acceptable verdict as all three were co-defendants and the prosecution's case relied on Diana's actions influencing those of Charles and Whittock. After retiring for a second time, the jury declared all three guilty of the charge. The Ingrams received an 18-month suspended sentence and a fine of £15,000 plus £10,000 for costs. Whittock received 6 months less and a fine of £10,000 plus £7,500 for costs.
After the Scandal[]
After the court case, the Ingrams would be constantly coughed at by members of the public and Charles gained the nickname of "The Coughing Major". They were also subject to a campaign of harassment which involved people vandalising their car and their cat being shot with an air gun. The Army Board requested that Charles resign his commission, which he did. Whittock resigned from his lecturer's job at Pontypridd College and trademarked his name to prevent a company from naming a cough medicine after him. The trademark expired in 2013 and was declared "dead" in 2014 after not being renewed. ITV broadcast two documentaries about the case titled Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?: Major Fraud and Who Wants to Steal a Million? The programmes were produced by James Goldston.
Further fraud offences[]
In late 2003, Ingram and his wife were charged with further fraud offences. On 28 October, Ingram was found guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, and of a second charge of deception, having attempted to claim on an insurance policy after an alleged burglary at his home. Ingram had failed to tell Direct Line Insurance about claims he had made in the three years before he took out the policy in July 2001. The court was told that Ingram had been a "habitual claimant" with Norwich Union after suffering "unfortunate" losses of private possessions.
Christopher Parker, prosecuting, said Ingram switched insurers to Zurich Insurance Group in 1997, after Norwich Union reduced a burglary claim from £19,000 to £9,000, and in 2000 switched again to Direct Line. "He has been ineluctably dishonest", Parker said. "He went to Direct Line and didn't make a disclosure about his claims history because he knew he wouldn't have been insured. It might not have started off as the most monstrous piece of villainy but these things tend to snowball and it all came to a sticky end when he claimed for £30,000." Staff at Direct Line were already "suspicious" about Ingram's £30,000 burglary claim but decided to investigate only after reading newspaper coverage about his questionable win on Millionaire.
Ingram was given a conditional discharge on the charge of fraudulently claiming £30,000 on insurance. The judge told Ingram he took into account "the punishment [Ingram had] brought upon [himself] and [his] dire financial state" and rejected an alternative option of community service after Ingram told a probation officer he feared other criminals would bully him.
Claims of innocence[]
Years after the court case, a number of journalists have cast doubt on the original verdict citing the inconsistency of the coughs and Tarrant's testimony that he had heard no coughing. In 2015 a book titled Bad Show: The Quiz, the Cough, the Millionaire Major was published claiming there was unseen evidence that proved that the three defendants were innocent. In 2017, a play titled Quiz was released about the case. A three-episode television series based on the play, also titled Quiz, was aired on ITV in 2020.