‘Coughing Major’ quiz cheats may be innocent, says TV drama’s star
THE “Coughing Major” suffered inverse snobbery and could be innocent, the star and writer of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? drama have claimed.
Quiz tells the story of Charles Ingram and his accomplices, who were convicted of conning their way to the million-pound prize on the game show in 2001. Ingram, his wife Diana and Tecwen Whittock, an associate, were given suspended sentences for an onair ploy to signal correct answers from the quiz audience by coughing.
However, James Graham, the writer behind a play of their story and a new ITV drama, believes their guilt is not assured and that they were made to suffer for being middle class.
Graham claims their relative privilege made them tabloid fodder and ripe to be hounded by the press.
Matthew Macfadyen, who stars as Ingram, dubbed “the Coughing Major”, also has doubts about their guilt.
Graham said audiences would see the ambiguity of the Ingrams’ actions in the series, which begins on April 13.
“The story isn’t as clear cut as the majority of people think,” he told Radio Times. “There is new evidence and other older evidence that hasn’t really been presented to the public before, and it points towards the Ingrams’ innocence.”
Suspicions were raised when Ingram told Chris Tarrant (Michael Sheen) that Craig David was a correct answer despite seconds before saying he had never heard of him.
The scam, which involved Whittock, a lecturer, coughing when correct answers were read out, was uncovered and they faced justice. But Graham believes the couple suffered for their class, stating: “You might argue that they were perfect tabloid fodder for people to project hatred towards.”
Macfadyen said there was “a question mark as to whether they did it”.
After a trial in 2003, the Ingrams and Whittock received suspended jail sentences and were ordered to pay fines.
In Quiz, Sheen turns his impressionist skills to portray Tarrant, with Sian Clifford, the Fleabag actress, as Mrs Ingram, and Michael Jibson as Whittock.