Is ITV's Quiz based on a true story? And what happened with the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 'coughing scandal'?
13 April 2020, 20:00 | Updated: 13 April 2020, 20:01
Is ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire drama based on a true story? Find out what really happened...
ITV is back with a brand new mini series based on the Who Wants To be A Millionaire ‘coughing scandal’.
While Michael Sheen transformed into game show host Chris Tarrant, Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford are playing infamous contestants Charles Ingram and his wife Diana.
But is Quiz based on a true story and what happened in the Who Wants To be A Millionaire coughing scandal?
Is Quiz based on a true story and what happened?
The three-part series, written by James Graham and based on his West End play of the same name, is a dramatisation of the infamous Who Wants To Be A Millionaire coughing scandal.
Back in 2001, Major Charles Ingram, his wife Diana and accomplice Tecwen Whittock were accused of cheating their way to winning one million pounds.
ITV’s Quiz takes viewers back to when one of the show’s creators, David Briggs, pitched the idea of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? to ITV’s newly installed Director of Programmes, David Liddiment.
After the show made its debut in September 1998, 'Millionaire fever' gripped the nation and thousands of viewers desperately tried to appear on the show.
From a village in Wiltshire, Charles and Diana Ingram were among those who became fixated with sitting in the chair opposite Chris Tarrant, which led to them both making multiple attempts to get on the show.
While his wife managed to scoop £32,000 during her appearance, Major Charles Ingram went on to answer 15 questions correctly and scooped the jackpot.
However, the cheque was taken from him as he left the studio as suspicions began to surface that wife Diana and fellow contestant Tecwen Whittock had been coughing to alert him of the right answers.
The Ingrams were later found guilty of “procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception” in 2003, and were given two years suspended sentences and asked to pay £115,000.
Whittock also received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.
