man who cheated on who wants to be a millionaire Can you answer the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire questions Major Charles Ingram cheated on? It has been nearly 20 years since Major Charles Ingram answered 15 questions and won £1million on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - only to then be exposed for cheating. The shocking events now form the basis of the TV drama Quiz, starring Michael Sheen, Matthew Macfayden and Sian Clifford. Major Ingram and his wife Diana did not receive the £1m prize and - along with another man Tecwen Whitlock - were eventually convicted of 'procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception' after a trial at Southwark Crown Court. That followed accusations that Whitlock, one of the contestants on the show who did not get chosen to play, would cough to tell Ingram the right answer as host Chris Tarrant read them out. Back in September 2001, when the two shows Ingram appeared in were broadcast, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was one of the biggest shows on television. Contestants had to answer a question in the quickest time to get on - called fastest finger first - before getting through 15 questions that were progressively more difficult as the prize money went up. Each question had four possible answers and to help them they had four lifelines - ask the audience for help, 50/50 to remove two wrong answers and phone a friend. Read More. Related Articles. To get on the show back in September 2001, Ingram practised for 20 minutes per day on a fastest finger first machine he built himself. When the show ended on September 9 he had reached £4,000 but gone through two of his three lifelines. The next night Ingram would jump from one answer to the next after appearing to have settled, somehow reaching the £1m prize. But how do you think you would do in those circumstances? We've reproduced the 15 questions for you to take on here, but without any lifelines. Have a go and see how many you can get right. Would you win the £1million or end up with a lesser amount? Millionaire cheat Charles Ingram’s scam unraveled due to epic mistake on key question. Chris Tarrant might have declared Charles Ingram his "favourite ever contestant" - but Who Wants To Be A Millionaire producers had their suspicions while the Army Major was still playing. The father-of-three seemed to be a certainty for an early exit from the ITV game show. He had only managed to reach £4,000 on his first day facing Tarrant - and had used up two of his three precious lifelines. But on day two it was a different picture entirely. The Major was on a real winning streak, seemingly without explanation. He was behaving erratically and seemed to be taking huge risks on big money questions he clearly didn't know the answers to. One of the strangest moments came when Ingram was asked 'Who recorded the Born To Do It album'? By his own admission he had never heard of the record or its singer and initially selected the wrong answer. Read More. Related Articles. Read More. Related Articles. But then, with a clearly confused Tarrant watching and waiting, he picked the right choice - Craig David. Even on the question that netted him the £1million, Ingram was considering both another answer and walking away with the £500,000. But then out of the blue he selected the correct choice - and his life changed overnight. The Ingram's joy was short-lived. Within days they had been arrested and accused of cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which had an audience of 19million people. They found themselves in the dock 18 months after the historic win, accused of procuring the executon of a valuable security by deception. Read More. Related Articles. Read More. Related Articles. The Ingrams have always insisted they were innocent of any wrong doing but they were found guilty and each fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 towards prosecution costs, which was later increased to £65,000. They, along with the man accused of helping them cheat, Tecwen Whittock, were also give suspended sentences. Tarrant himself admits he had no clue something was wrong and that the couple seemed to have cheated their way to a win. The legendary TV host said: "If I thought there was anything wrong, I certainly would not have signed it (the cheque). "They seemed as normal as people who have just won a million pounds would be in the situation." Read More. Related Articles. Read More. Related Articles. But Ingram seemed to have a very particular way of answering each of the questions. He would read out each answer very carefully, sometimes repeating them more than once. And there was one key question for £500,000 that almost blew the entire plot wide open and exposed the scam. When Ingram was asked 'Baron Haussmann is best known for the planning of which city?' The four choices were Rome, Berlin, Paris and Athens. And this time Ingram thought he had the answer - he said Baron Haussmann sounded German, but this was wrong. Tarrant told him "Charles ten minutes ago, you thought it was A1" in relation to the Craig David question he had mysteriously got right despite leaning towards the wrong answer. Read More. Related Articles. Read More. Related Articles. But Ingram had made one key mistake, he had forgotten to carefully read out all of the answers so Whittock could help. The lecturer then made a really loud coughing noise and there are reports he was heard whispering 'No' loudly. Ingram seemed oblivious, so Whittock is said to have deployed the code for alerting him he had settled on the wrong answer. He blew his noise. Next, Ingram argued it couldn't be Paris and there are claims Whittock could be heard coughing as this was the correct answer. It seemed to stop Ingram mid-sentence but he couldn't shake his belief the correct answer was Berlin and once again there are reports of Whittock blowing his nose. Read More. Related Articles. Read More. Related Articles. Fellow contestant Larry Whittock was by now becoming suspicious because of all the noise Whittock was making. He later testified at the Ingram's trial and told the jury that he had thought there was a pattern of coughing - but stressed he wasn't certain how much it had helped the Major. Whittock has also always insisted he had suffered from a persistent cough for most of his life and also had hayfever and a dust allergy, which was troubling on the night. Quiz: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. But the coughing and Ingram's unusual behaviour was enough to convince producers that he was cheating and just days after his big win the cheque was stopped. However, many believe the Ingram's were wrongly convicted, including Helen McCrory, who plays the Ingrams' barrister in ITV's Quiz, added: "The fact that a lot of people at the time didn’t hear the cough. "Chris Tarrant didn’t hear the cough, the person sitting opposite didn’t hear the cough, people either side didn’t hear the cough, yet for some reason he [Charles Ingram] heard the cough – really? "Now for some reason maybe he did. Maybe it was a complete set-up, or maybe he didn’t. You’re just looking for a truth." Who Wants To Be A Millionaire cheat Charles Ingram stunned as Quiz drama even gets his bed right. THE man who cheated his way to £1million pounds on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, can't believe how accurate the TV drama about his scandal is. Charles Ingram took to Twitter after the first episode of Quiz aired on ITV on Monday to reveal how much the show got right. The series premiere laid the groundwork about what lead to one of the biggest scandals in British TV history. Many of the scenes were shot inside Charles and his wife, Diana's, family home. Charles could not get over the attention to detail in Quiz even right down to the bed the couple slept in. He wrote: "That’s our BED! How the heck did they find our bed?" The former Army major also noticed other details on the show that were right on the money. Charles wrote about their old car: "I loved that old Honda. Loaded and such a smooth ride. The attention to detail is unnerving." He also described the most "cringeworthy" scene where actor Matthew Macfadyen who plays Charles, is forced to sing along with a higher ranking Army member who gets swept up in Major-General's Song from The Pirates of Penzance. But the dad also revealed that his wife has also been very taken with show, particularly Matthew's performance. He wrote: "Matthew is so damn good-looking I can’t sleep. Trying to kid myself I looked like that 19 years ago but failing miserably. "Diana called me ‘Matthew’ as I was brushing my teeth." The three-part series follows Charle and his wife before, during and after his infamous £1 million win on ITV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2001, which was dogged by claims someone had coughed at the right answers to help him succeed. While Charles was eventually convicted on a single count of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception after a lengthy trial. More in TV & Showbiz. FREE BRITNEY. 'ONLY FAIR' HAUNTED HOUSE. POOR GUY. HOME FROM HOME. HE'S HONOUR-ED! Actress Sian Clifford who plays Diana Ingram on Quiz insisted she didn’t make a judgement about whether the couple were involved in the coughing scandal or not when she took on the role. Speaking at a screening of the series, she said: “You know it was a question that we tossed around every single day but I don’t know whether it’s important to answer that question because we don’t answer that question on the show. “I think we do present something that’s very balanced. I think it’s more important to answer the question of whether or not they should have the criminal conviction. “That’s something else I’m interested in the show examining. So I don’t sit on either side because I think it is impossible to answer.” Who Wants to be a Millionaire legend Chris Tarrant's net worth and famous children. It has been 23 years since Who Wants to be a Millionaire first hit our screens and, while Jeremy Clarkson is doing a pretty good job, we must admit: we miss Chris Tarrant. There was just something special about sitting down on a Saturday night and watching the Reading presenter tease his guests. "But, we don't want to give you that!" At its peak in 1999, the ITV show could draw more than 19 million viewers, all watching as Chris challenged his contestants' general knowledge, giving them the option to Ask The Audience, go 50/50 or Phone a Friend. Chris left the show in 2014 before it went into a four year hiatus, posing the question: Why did Chris Tarrant leave Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Here are some facts about the Berkshire-based presenter, including his net worth, who the presenter's son is and more. How did Chris Tarrant become a TV star? Back in 1964, Chris started working for the television network ATV, which no longer exists. As he had studied in the Midlands - at the University of Birmingham following a boarding education at King's School, Worcester - he presented ATV Today, a current affairs show serving the region. At the same time, he hosted Tiswas, which back in 1974 was a regional show. The children's Saturday morning series was picked up by most other ITV regions, and Chris (along with Spit the Dog) became a household name. Tiswas ran until 1981 and the following year, Chris - along with Bob Carolgees, John Gorman, Lenny Henry and Randolph Sutherland - launched OTT - a late night show which didn't get anywhere near the same level of popularity as Tiswas. What did Chris Tarrant do after Tiswas? From 1987 until 2004, Chris presented the early-morning show Capital Breakfast. It was a hit. He is still to date the longest-running presenter on the show and at one point he attracted as many as 1.57 million listeners. According to the Guardian, shares in the show dropped almost 8 per cent after Chris' departure from the show. The report said that Johnny Vaughan's breakfast show, which replaced Chris' stint, lost 200,000 of the listeners it inherited. BerkshireLive email updates: We bring the stories to you. Signing up to the BerkshireLive newsletter means you'll receive our daily news email. It couldn't be simpler and it takes seconds - simply press here, enter your email address and follow the instructions. You can also enter your address at the top of this page in the box below the picture on most desktop and mobile platforms. Changed your mind? There's an 'unsubscribe' button at the bottom of every newsletter we send out. You can also sign up to our website and comment on our stories by pressing here and signing in. Who is Chris Tarrant's son? Chris has two children from his marriage to Sheila Roberton - Helen who was born in 1977 and Jennifer who followed in 1980. His two youngest children are Sammy and Toby, who he shares with Ingrid Dupre-Walsh. He was also step-dad to Ingrid's children from her previous marriage, Dexter and Fia, a Heart radio presenter. Toby, who is 29, has followed in his father's footsteps and is a DJ on Radio X. He started his own career back in 2014, presenting the early breakfast show on Capital FM. Chris spilt from Ingrid in 2006 and has been in a long-term relationship with Jane Bird since 2008. He lives in Upper Bucklebury. Read More. Related Articles. Read More. Related Articles. Why did Chris Tarrant leave Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Ratings had seriously dropped by October 2013 - only three or four million people would tune in to watch, a far cry from its peak of more than 19 million. Chris didn't mention ratings in his departing statement, though. He said: "It’s been a huge part of my life for 15 years and I’ve loved every minute of it, but it is time for me to move on from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? "It’s been the most remarkable journey and I consider myself very fortunate to have been associated with Millionaire from its inception. "ITV have been fantastic in their support from day one and to see its huge success has been thrilling. "But of course so much more rewarding for all of us has been, not just the celebrities or even the million-pound winners, but all of the ordinary men and women whose lives have been changed - sometimes forever - by being on the show. "Thank you all for sitting opposite me. "I am privileged to have been a part of it, but do now feel that it is time for me to call it a day." The man who cheated Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Among the biggest stories to come from Chris' tenure as Who Wants to be a Millionaire? host was the Ingram cheating scandal. The man who cheated was Charles Ingram, a British Army major who managed to swizz the show out of the £1 million prize. He did so by listening out for the coughs of Fastest Finger First contestant Tecwen Whittock and his wife Diana. The cheaters went to trial at Southwark Crown Court and were convicted by a jury. Both of the Ingrams and Whittock were given suspended prison sentences and each fined £15,000. They also had to pay £10,000 towards production costs, as well as additional defence costs. Everything you need to know about Charles Ingram - the man who cheated on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. New ITV drama, Quiz, is exploring the bizarre story of the coughing scandal that saw one man bag the £1 million prize on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. But who exactly is Charles Ingram, what happened on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and could he actually be innocent? As the drama about the infamous cheating scandal continues, this is everything you need to know about Charles Ingram - including what happened during and after the trial. Sign up to our daily newsletter. The i newsletter cut through the noise. Who is Charles Ingram? Charles Ingram was born on 6 August 1963 in Shardlow, Derbyshire, and was son to John Ingram, a retired RAF wing commander and Susan, a theatre set designer. Charles spent most of his education years at a private boarding school, Oswestry School, where he became a member of the Combined Cadet Force and completed the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award. He then went on to study at Kingston University, gaining a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. In 1986, Charles trained for the British Army at Sandhurst and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Engineers - he was promoted to captain in 1990, and then again to major in 1995. In 1998, Charles was sent to Banja Luka in Bosnia for six months on United Nations peacekeeping duties. In August 2000, he graduated from Cranfield University with a master’s degree in corporate management. Charles met his future wife Diana when she was training to be a teacher at Barry College in South Wales, and were married in November in 1989. The two have three children together. Prior to Charles appearing on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Diana and her brother, Adrian Pollock, both starred on the show - they both left with winnings of £32,000. What happened on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? In 2001, Who Wants to be a Millionaire was at the centre of a famous scandal when contestant Charles Ingram managed to cheat his way to the maximum prize of £1 million. He became one of the first and only people to win the jackpot. The first UK winner was Judith Keppel, a contestant who scooped up the £1 million prize in 2000. To secure his place on the show, Charles practiced with a “fastest finger” machine that he and Diana built themselves. Charles appeared over two episodes of the quiz show. His first episode ended when it ran out of time so he reappeared in the next one to finish his run. By the time recording finished on his first day, it didn’t seem likely that he would get very far. He had already used up two of his three lifelines by the time he reached the £4,000 question. As a general rule of thumb, the production team doesn't expect anyone who has used more than one lifeline before reaching a five-figure cash sum to go far. However, everything changed when Charles returned to the studio to finish recording his episode. Working with his wife Diana and accomplice Tecwen Whittock in the audience, Charles would muse aloud the possible answers to questions posed by host Chris Tarrant. When he would mention the correct answer, a cough would sound from the audience. In one memorable moment, Charles was asked who recorded the 2000 album ‘Born To Do It’. Charles was certain the answer was A1, stating that he’d never even heard of Craig David. Just as he was about to lock in A1 for his answer, he suddenly and seemingly without cause, changed his mind and went with Craig David. How did they get caught? During the final rounds of Charles’ questions, the production team began to notice the recurring coughing sounds. Philip Davies, the studio floor manager, said in court: “There is always coughing during recording, but it’s generally irregular, not systematic.” When the taping of Charles’ episode finished, the production team immediately began to review the footage of the episode. The episode was subsequently pulled from being broadcast, with Celador Productions (the production company behind Who Wants to be a Millionaire) informing Charles of this, and also that his £1 million prize was being withdrawn. With the episode no longer being put to air, the public wouldn’t see the big win until 2003, in the documentary Tonight With Trevor McDonald - Major Fraud. The Ingrams and Whittock were all arrested later upon suspicion of deception. Due to Charles’ military status, he was dubbed ‘The Coughing Major’ after the scandal broke out. During the trial, the defense argued that Whittock suffered from allergies which explained the coughing - however, footage from the show revealed that Whittock stopped coughing when Charles left the set. Charles also claimed that the footage shown during the trial was unfairly edited, and stated that he didn’t even notice the coughing going on. All three were later found guilty after a lengthy trial which took place at Southwark Crown Court in 2003. The Ingrams were sentenced to 18 months in prison and Whittock to 12 months. They all managed to avoid a custodial sentence, with their respective sentences all suspended. Each of the trio were also fined £15,000, and a further £10,000 for prosecution costs. Despite the outcome of the trial, the Ingrams have always claimed their innocence. Could they be innocent? The question about the trio’s guilt is still ongoing. In 2006, Guardian writer Jon Ronson, who had covered the trial at the time, stated he had doubts about the guilty verdict. In an opinion piece for the Guardian, Ronson wrote: “I am beginning to suspect that Charles Ingram, his wife, Diana, and Tecwen Whittock may be innocent.” In 2015, journalist Bob Woffinden and previous Who Wants to be a Millionaire contestant James Plaskett published a book which went on to highlight some of the possible problems with the case against the Ingrams and Whittock. James Graham, writer behind ITV drama and west end show about the scandal Quiz, also has some doubts about whether the trio are guilty or not. Speaking to Radio Times, Graham said: “There are so many things I found extraordinary about the case that don’t make sense. “The fact that the three of them had never met, the Ingrams and Tecwen Whittock, [they] had never spent any time in a room with each other, and only had one phone call that lasted eight minutes, as fans of the show who discovered they were going to be on the same programme together.” Graham continued: “The fact that he [Whittock] has a diagnosed cough, he has an asthmatic condition that he can’t control. Would you pick someone who has an uncontrollable cough to cough at specific moments, during a really tense game show? Maybe you wouldn’t.” What happened to Charles after the trial? After the trial, Charles was ordered by the Army Board to resign in 2003, giving up his rank of major. Despite everything that happened on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Charles and his wife Diana both went on to star in more reality TV shows. Charles starred in The Games, a Channel Four reality sports game which saw contestants undertaking Olympic-style events like weightlifting and gymnastics. Charles and Diana also returned to quizzing TV, with both of them appearing on The Weakest Link, a quiz show hosted by Anne Robinson. The two also appeared on Wife Swap, where Charles swapped Diana for Big Brother star Jade Goody. The Ingrams also featured on Hell's Kitchen, where Gordon Ramsey served them a cough sweet. Charles also went on to become a published author - The Network, published in 2006, and Deep Siege, publishing in 2007. What is Quiz about? Quiz is a new ITV drama which chronicles the cheating scandal. It was written by James Graham (The Crown, Brexit: The Uncivil War) , who initially adapted the story into a West End play, also called Quiz. The show stars Matthew Macfayden (Ripper Street, Succession) as Charles, Sian Clifford (Fleabag, Vanity Fair) as his wife, Diana and Michael Jibson (1917, Saints & Strangers) as Tecwen Whittock. Chris Tarrant is played by Michael Sheen (Good Omens, The Good Fight). The show is a three part series. The first episode aired on Monday 13 April and subsequent episodes will air at 9pm on Tuesday 14 April and Wednesday 15 April at 9pm on ITV. The episodes are also available to watch on the ITV hub after they’ve been aired on TV.