Question for people in the UK: Charles Ingram Scandal

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

I randomly watched this documentary about some dude who tried to scam 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' with the most obvious cheating I've ever seen.

How big a deal was this? I was never clear if the actual episode aired or not.

I can't imagine how they thought they would get away with this. Especially how he kept saying that he was sure the actual right answer was wrong, then magically coming up with the right answer out of nowhere.

[thechase]

The episode aired close to 9/11, or just after...and yes, it was a mild sensation back in it's day. There was a prime time investigative documentary about the whole thing, and last year there was a three-part drama made by ITY itself about the Ingrams' lives before and after the scandal, with Michael Sheen playing Chris Tarrant.

[Viking Hall]

I was in my early teens when it happened and I vividly remember it being a big talking point as well as being front page news. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was something of a cultural phenomenon at the time which certainly helped spur on the media hype around it, but yeah, it was certainly a big deal and probably the only time I can think of something like this occurring over here. It ended up going to court and all sorts too which of course, made even more coverage and the Ingrams gained a level of notoriety afterwards as well for a brief period.

[dirtyoldman]

Am I correct that when they did air it the first ad during the break was for cough syrup?

[Jaws the Shark]

I remember someone at school telling me one morning that Chris Tarrant was dead, and that Charles Ingram was providing the coffin. It took me a minute. It was still early, to be fair.

It was everywhere for a while, because of how huge Millionaire was, and just the sheer weirdness of the whole story. I remember watching the documentary on it, and the guy's wife was an absolute quiz obsessive and was clearly prepared to go to ridiculous lengths to win. TV quiz obsessives appear to still be quite common, there are a few people I can remember seeing on multiple quiz shows. I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for him, he didn't strike me as being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

What I thought was particularly amusing was that the co-conspirator's name was Tecwen Whittock, which sounds as if it should be the name of a character in Brass Eye.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

Mar 22, 2021 10:02:40 GMT -5 Jaws the Shark said:

I remember someone at school telling me one morning that Chris Tarrant was dead, and that Charles Ingram was providing the coffin. It took me a minute. It was still early, to be fair.

It was everywhere for a while, because of how huge Millionaire was, and just the sheer weirdness of the whole story. I remember watching the documentary on it, and the guy's wife was an absolute quiz obsessive and was clearly prepared to go to ridiculous lengths to win. TV quiz obsessives appear to still be quite common, there are a few people I can remember seeing on multiple quiz shows. I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for him, he didn't strike me as being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

What I thought was particularly amusing was that the co-conspirator's name was Tecwen Whittock, which sounds as if it should be the name of a character in Brass Eye.

The other funny thing was his co-conspirator couldn't get past like the 3rd question, even though he coughed his way to helping the other guy get a million.

[Deleted]

It was news here briefly in the states.

[SmashTV]

I think it was more of a shock as to how far they’d go to cheat. A lot of people would have been happy with £32k, so to cook up an elaborate scheme caught everybody’s attention.

They got some notoriety out of it - appearing on the odd reality show here and there, but the last I heard he was selling trinkets in a market to make ends meet.