Phone call changed everything after man was caught cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
When Charles Ingram won the top prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, producers were suspicious pretty much right away.
On his first day of filming, they hadn't expected him to make it much further than the £4,000 he'd ended up on, having burned two of his lifelines early on in the quiz.
When he returned, he deliberated over each question for a long time, reading out the answers again and again while coughing could be heard from the audience.
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Ingram gave answers which he admitted he knew nothing about, and on the million-pound question, 'A number one followed by one hundred zeros is known by what name?', he said he thought it was 'nanomole', before switching to the correct answer 'googol'.
Having won the million quid, there was much fanfare, but the producers searched Ingram, as they were suspicious about how he won the money when he'd struggled hugely to reach £4,000.
Going back over the footage, the producers noticed coughing from the audience when Ingram said the right answer, and while they tried to give the contestant the benefit of the doubt, by the end of the investigation, they were sure something was wrong.
Since Ingram didn't know about the suspicion on him, producers had to call him up and tell him he wouldn't be getting the money.
Quiz show contestants don't get their winnings immediately after filming wraps up. Instead, they normally have to wait for the episode to be broadcast, and when the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire producers called him up, he hadn't received the money.
Celador producer Paul Smith said: "I have to tell you that we have suspicions from viewing the recording of last Monday's programme.
"And subsequently studying the tapes carefully, that there were irregularities during the taping of the show in which you participated."
Having been told that the producers had suspicions of him, Ingram said 'oh good lord, no', and Smith had further bad news for him.
He said: "Because of that I have to tell you that these suspicions have been referred to the police, and thus we will not for the moment be airing the programme or indeed authorising payment of the cheque."
Ingram responded by saying 'right, well yeah I completely refute that obviously' and expressing he was 'absolutely gobsmacked'.
The producer said he was basically trying to say 'you have cheated us of a million pounds on our show', and he suspected that if he was in Ingram's shoes, he'd have reacted differently.
"I would have suspected that I would’ve, if I had been him in that situation, I would have said 'hang on a minute, hang on a minute', what are you talking about?", he explained.
Charles Ingram, his wife Diana, and contestant Tecwen Whittock were convicted of most of the offences they had been charged with, and were given fines and suspended sentences.
Topics: ITV, TV and Film, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Joe Harker