'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire': What happened to Charles Ingram who coughed and cheated his way to a million
Back in the day 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' was one of the most-watched televised quiz shows. The show had originated in Britain in 1998 and the format then went on to be adapted internationally. It was quite a rage back then with millions and millions of people tuning in to their televisions watching people answer general knowledge questions and win money for it.
However, one episode of 'WWTBAM' Britain didn't air. The episode featured Charles Ingram, a former army major, who appeared on the show in 2001 and left with a £1M ($1,313,000) cheque. But he didn't get to cash it as his entire journey on the show, comprising two nights, was laced with clear hints that there was foul play involved when he was seated opposite the show's host Chris Tarrant. To see someone use two lifelines on their first night in the game, that too for the initial questions and next day showing mercurial growth and ending up answering the £1M question was too good to be true.
The reason for this 180-degree change from struggling to answer basic questions to turning into a trivia master next day was a plan that he devised with major help from his wife Diana Ingram. She'd brought in a third person to ensure her husband would win the ultimate prize money. All this to pay off more than $66,000 (£50,000) debt, as alleged by crown prosecutor Nicholas Hilliard, who was leading the case against the Ingrams and Tecwen Whittock, the accomplice that Diana had swooped in, into their plan to cheat and win. Whittock was a college lecturer from Cardiff who Diana knew from the game show circuit, according to a Vice report. They schemed together and came to decide that the next day when Charles is in the hotseat, he would read out each answer aloud and Whittock would cough for the right answer. The plan was executed just like they'd thought. There were many slip-ups though, Charles rambled a lot, said he had no idea about certain questions, but then always ended up with the right one.
For the £500,000 ($656,450) question that was 'Baron Haussmann is best known for his planning of which city?' with Rome, Paris, Berlin, and Athens as the options, Charles was sure that he knew the right answer and didn't need help. He was hellbent on Berlin so he didn't read all the answers but Whittock knew that was not it. He coughed and muttered under his breath to let Charles know about it, according to a news report. That wasn't enough to convince Charles, and therefore, Whittock had to blow his nose a couple of times and cough four times to get him to give Paris as the final answer. Charles won the prize set for that question but Whittock's tactics to help him had roused the doubts into the mind of Fastest Finger First contestant Larry Whitehurst. The next and final question for a million Sterling Pounds ($1,313,000) was "A number one followed by one hundred zeros is known by what name?" with Googol, Megatron, Gigabit and Nanomole as the options. Whittock didn't know the answer to this and sought help from another FFF contestant Mr Lucy who told him it was Googol. Armed with the correct answer, he coughed, and that's how Charles became a millionaire.
Charles' "millionaire" status as one though was shortlived as the show’s production company, Celador, suspended his winnings on the suspicion that there was cheating involved, according to a Vulture report. A call to show's creator Paul Smith by the sound technician for the show stating there was an unusual correlation between coughing sounds and Charles’ answers is what fueled the investigation. The trial of the Ingram's and Whittock began in 2003 and Charles defended himself saying he knew all responses due to his background as an honors A-level student. “I was not aware of any coughing while sitting in the hot seat from any part of the audience or contestants or otherwise,” he claimed. “As the tension and stress increases and the money goes up and so on — I know because it happened to me — your doubts increase,” he said according to a BBC report.
Following a four-week trial, Charles was convicted by a majority verdict of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception. He was sentenced to a suspended 18-month sentence, fined £15,000 ($19,698), and ordered to pay two separate legal costs of £10,000 ($13,133) and £40,000 ($52,532). Months after his trial, he was also ordered to resign from his commission in the army. However, till date, Charles and his wife claim to be innocent and the 19 strategically-timed coughs by Whittock during his entire game is something they dismiss as a coincidence. Watch a glimpse of his time on 'Millionaire' by clicking on the video below.
