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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Julie McCaffrey & Zoe Forsey

Chris Tarrant's sweary rant about Millionaire contestant's 'insulting' £32k sneer

From the moment it first aired, the nation was glued to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as they watched normal people edge closer and closer to a life-changing amount of money.

Six lucky people have walked away from the famous London studio with a cheque for £1,000,000 after answering 15 tough questions.

While the nation celebrated their wins and moaned in disappointment when people lost massive sums, not all the contestants won over viewers at home.

And even original host Chris Tarrant has admitted that he didn't like all of the players, but says there was one particularly rude contestant who he struggled to be nice to after witnessing his "insulting" reaction to winning £32,000.

Speaking to The Mirror ahead of the release of his new book It's Not a Proper Job, he said: "The job was to not show [I didn't like them]. But there was one man, Richard Deeley from Nottingham: Dick by name, d**k by nature.

Chris Tarrant has reflected on his life and career in his new book (ITV)
He was furious about Richard's reaction (ITV)

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"I gave him a cheque for £32,000, which I think is a lot of money. He screwed it up and threw it across the studio floor and said, 'We won’t be needing that'.

"I thought it was so insulting to the show, to me, but most of all to a dear old granny who would think £4,000 was a great deal of money. And there was this a*** throwing away a cheque for £32,000.

"When he got his £64,000 question wrong, you could hear the audience going, 'Yes! W***er!' He had to go grovelling around for his cheque on the floor afterwards. What a t****r."

While Richard sticks out in Chris' mind, his most-famous contestant was Major Charles Ingram, who cheated his way to the jackpot in 2001.

The father-of-three seemed to be a certainty for an early exit from the ITV game show. He had only managed to reach £4,000 on his first day facing Tarrant - and had used up two of his three precious lifelines.

But on day two it was a different picture entirely. The Major was on a real winning streak, seemingly without explanation.

The most infamous contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was Major Charles Ingram (centre) (Stellify Media/ITV)

He was behaving erratically and seemed to be taking huge risks on big money questions he clearly didn't know the answers to.

One of the strangest moments came when Ingram was asked 'Who recorded the Born To Do It album'? By his own admission he had never heard of the record or its singer and initially selected the wrong answer.

But then, with a clearly confused Tarrant watching and waiting, he picked the right choice - Craig David.

Even on the question that netted him the £1million, Ingram was considering both another answer and walking away with the £500,000.

But then out of the blue he selected the correct choice - and his life changed overnight.

The Ingram's joy was short-lived. Within days they had been arrested and accused of cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which had an audience of 19million people.

They found themselves in the dock 18 months after the historic win, accused of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception.

The Ingrams have always insisted they were innocent of any wrong doing but they were found guilty and each fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 towards prosecution costs, which was later increased to £65,000.

They, along with the man accused of helping them cheat, Tecwen Whittock, were also given suspended sentences.

Tarrant himself admits he had no clue something was wrong and that the couple seemed to have cheated their way to a win.

The legendary TV host said: "If I thought there was anything wrong, I certainly would not have signed it (the cheque).

"They seemed as normal as people who have just won a million pounds would be in the situation."

  • Chris' book, It's Not a Proper Job, is out now.

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