Chris Tarrant has criticised the ITV drama Quiz, saying he has “beef” with how the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? coughing scandal was depicted.
Quiz tells the story of how, in 2003, a former army major Charles Ingram, his wife Diana and their alleged accomplice Tecwen Whittock were found guilty of conspiring to cheat on the show, after producers noticed suspicious coughs from Whittock when correct answers were read out.
In a new interview with The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X this morning, Tarrant said: “There were so many things in there that they didn’t include. My beef with it is that they did a very strange but very convincing defence QC – that woman, Helen McRory – a very good defence wind-up, but they did not do any prosecution wind-up…
“I think it was – that bit was a bit of production company skulduggery basically. I mean, they wanted you to think, ‘Blimey, I don’t think he was guilty.’”
Ingram also recently shared his reaction to Quiz, calling it “terrifyingly accurate” and “excruciatingly enjoyable”.
Reflecting on the night Ingram appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Tarrant said: “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?’”
He added: “People were coughing everywhere because people always cough in studios, so I didn’t hear Tecwen.”
As the ITV drama drew to a close last night, many viewers said they were “convinced” of the Ingrams’ innocence.
In the same interview, Tarrant also escalated his feud with Ingram, calling him “a rotter, a cad and a bandit”.
