ASK THE AUDIENCE OR PHONE A QUIZ CHEAT
TV Millionaire quiz syndicate tricked show out of €5million
THE makers of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? claim a syndicate played the system to scoop at least €5million.
Paul Smith, boss of production company Celador, says he made the discovery while researching for ITV show Quiz.
The three-parter, to be aired over Easter, centres on Charles and Diana Ingram cheating their way to £1million in 2001.
But in a separate alleged scam
Chris Tarrant the syndicate worked out that producers used the Office for National Statistics database to write questions for candidates.
The man claimed to be behind the syndicate, Paddy Spooner, spent months studying answers and could give them to members on another phone line. To be 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.” Ingram, played by Succession star Matthew Macfadyen, and Diana (Fleabag’s Sian Clifford) always insisted they were innocent.
Helen said: “You see these two innocents walk into the gladiators den, and at the same time we all know it’s just magic boxes – it’s lights and smoke and mirrors.’”
After a trial in 2003 the Ingrams and Whittock got suspended sentences.
Tarrant is played by Michael Sheen, who has admitted being impressed by the quizmaster. He said: “He is so brilliant at what he does on that show.
“He is doing so many things at the same time, making it look effortless.”
Ingrams in 2003 allowed to join, you had to be a quizzer and pay £500.
Members were available for the “phone a friend” lifeline given by host Chris Tarrant.
In the third episode, Spooner meets Smith in a pub, which happened in real life, and tells him: “It is not illegal what we do.
They were vulnerabilities that you left in your own system.” Smith told the Mail on Sunday: “We were naive. We believed people would play the game in the spirit it was intended.”
Writer James Graham said: “Paul was shocked to realise one in every 10 pounds he gave away went to this operation.”
There were claims phones and pagers also helped guide Ingram but none of it was proven.