Quiz actress thinks it’s ‘impossible’ to say if Ingrams are guilty of cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
QUIZ actress Sian Clifford thinks it's 'impossible' to say if the Ingrams are guilty of cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The 38-year-old actress plays Diana Ingram in the new ITV drama, which begins tonight.
The series follows Charles Ingram 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.
However Sian insists 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."
Sian met with the Ingram's while on set and praised the couple for being "so generous with their time."
She added: "They were so sweet and it was really important to me to not engage at all with what was written about them at the time.
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"You know she was painted as this sort of Lady Macbeth character and that’s a character I’d love to play and I don’t think that’s who she is.
"She struck me as an introvert, and a nerd and someone who’s actually quite shy and very sweet, definitely naïve.
"And I really wanted to get to that and protect them and be sensitive towards them but also protect the integrity of [writer] James' [Graham] remarkable script which I think is completely balanced."
Quiz begins tonight at 9pm on ITV and continues over consecutive nights.