Chris Tarrant calls Charles Ingram ‘a rotter, cad & bandit’ & says there’s ‘no question he was guilty’ after Quiz finale
CHRIS Tarrant has branded Charles Ingram ‘a rotter, cad and bandit’ and insists there’s ‘no question he was guilty’ after the Quiz finale.
The 73-year-old was portrayed by Michael Sheen in the ITV series, which followed the Who Wants to be a Millionaire 'coughing scandal' in 2001.
Chris hosted the show and witnessed Major Charles Ingram win the £1 million prize, only to be accused of cheating by having his wife and a fellow contestant cough on the right answers.
Quiz looked at both sides of the argument, but Chris stands firm in his view of Charles, 56, almost two decades on.
Appearing on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, Chris said: "It was actually very well done but it is a drama, it’s not factual.
"So most of those conversations were made up because that’s what playwrights do.
"I mean the bottom line is he’s a rotter and a cad and a bandit and he was guilty. No question in my mind at all that he was guilty!"
Speaking about the night Charles won the million, Chris recalled: "I’ve always said, I saw nothing. But the studio that night was like a madhouse.
"People were screaming and gasping just because he was so, you know he’s a serving British Army Major who’s on, I don’t know £30k a year, rented accommodation or whatever, and he’s going 'Oh yes £500,000, let’s risk it, let’s play' and all this and you think 'why would you do that?'
"And he was so hard to follow! He was going 'Er, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, I think it’s Berlin. Ah, no it’s not, it’s Paris' and I’m going 'Hang on, so this is your final answer, Paris?' so I am so focused on this guy thinking you know 'what is your final answer and how far are you going and are you really risking that amount of money?'"
Chris recalled that people were "coughing everywhere" and he didn't hear Tecwen, and only realised what was going on the next day.
The former host also hoped people weren't feeling sorry for Charles or believing that the show "done him up."
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He continued: "We wouldn’t - the police prosecuted him, we didn’t. At the time I think we were getting audiences of something like 13 or 14 million.
"We sold it to 132 countries around the world – America, Australia, India etc - so why would we go out on a limb to try and prosecute one of these guys?
"Of course we thought he was guilty, no question! And nothing has changed my mind to be honest. It was very well done though!"