Charles Ingram and the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire scandal - Game Shows Part III

00:00This is World's Greatest Con. I'm Brian Brushwood.

00:05As best I could tell, there are three things every con needs.

00:13You gotta have a plan or skill.

00:15When we took on Hitler, we saw that.

00:18Months of planning, years of idea development, every possibility accounted for.

00:24You gotta have the opportunity, the right window.

00:30For Dan Enright, it was having his show for NBC.

00:34The most important part, the part where we get the word con, is confidence.

00:40The confidence to reach for that brass ring.

00:44And I'm pretty sure this scales at all levels.

00:48For example, here's a con that you maybe unwittingly or wittingly have pulled off yourself.

00:53It's you and your buddies.

00:55You're out at lunch.

00:56There's an awful lot of you. The bill comes.

00:59Are we gonna split it?

01:00How are we gonna split it?

01:02Usually, nobody wants to think about this, but if you're a responsible adult, somebody takes charge. Goes through.

01:07Who had the steak?

01:09Who had the coffee?

01:10Who had the nachos?

01:11Who had the shrimp?

01:13Who had the ramen?

01:14I don't know what restaurant this is.

01:17It's gotta be Major Panda's Steak Grill in Taqueria.

01:21As you go through everything, eventually you realize that the stack of cash you have is significantly more than the tab.

01:29So you decide that your job is done.

01:32And whoopsie doodle, wouldn't you know it, there's so much there, including tip, that you don't need to pay for your lunch.

01:37Not a very good scam.

01:39Not a very hard con.

01:40Didn't require a lot of skill or a lot of planning, but it did take confidence and the opportunity.

01:47If you've ever found yourself in this situation, you might not think of it this way, but you've just taken part in the most popular scam in the world.

01:57It's called the short change, and once it gets weaponized, it is brutal.

02:05When I was 17 years old, I was working a cash register at a movie theater.

02:10In walks a couple in between the two features. Nobody's around.

02:14We're busy popping popcorn or what have you.

02:17The pair splits us up.

02:18One of them walks all the way down to the end of the aisle and says, I want to hear about these candies over here.

02:24So the person working with me goes down and explains the difference between Whoppers and Milk Duds.

02:30Meanwhile, the guy talking to me says, oh man, I'm going to get a small soda and I got to get ready for a big poker game tonight.

02:38I'll tell you what, I just need some change.

02:40I need a lot of ones.

02:42And he starts dropping 20 dollar bills on the counter.

02:44And then all of a sudden he has a bunch of ones and I've got fives and no, no.

02:49Did he say fives? No, no.

02:50He's got too many fives. He needs. You know what?

02:53Actually, let's go back.

02:54Let's get more of those 20s now.

02:55And at some point, something just didn't feel right.

03:00It felt like the polished cadence of a magic trick.

03:05But he had the authority.

03:08One might say the confidence to assure me that everything was above board.

03:14And it wasn't until after they left that I realized.

03:19I think we just got robbed.

03:22Sure enough, we counted the till 50 dollars down and a lesson I remember to this very day.

03:28The short change con boils down to staying one step ahead in the math till eventually the other side gets just enough confused that you're able to reset their expectations with you secretly coming out ahead.

03:45Opportunity, skill and a plan, confidence.

03:48They had all three.

03:51I was the perfect opportunity, 17 year old kid alone at a cash register, him an experienced pro, the right skill, the right plan, the right opportunity and a boatload of confidence.

04:06Those have been the three key ingredients with every con we've talked about so far.

04:11But what happens to the story when only two of those three show up?

04:19What if our would be con men have all the confidence they need and they have a golden opportunity?

04:24And what if they put, let's say, approximately zero effort into a plan or their skill?

04:33Heck, let's go even stupider.

04:35Let's make this half baked idea be for the equivalent of two and a half million dollars of today's money.

04:43It's 2001, a respected army major still in the service is going to decide on a lark to try to defraud who wants to be a millionaire.

04:57Their plan is going to be the dumbest thing you've ever heard, and the worst part of all is they're going to pull it off.

05:08Cons don't fool us because we're stupid and I'm not going to lie, it doesn't take a lot of brains to see through this one, but they do fool us because we're human.

05:19When it comes to confidence, and I mean only confidence, I have to admit, this may be.

05:32The world's greatest con.

08:19I will see if he can help. Hello. Hello, Tom.

08:29Yes, I read just feel the day from who wants to be a millionaire.

08:33I we've got your son John.

08:35If you're old enough, you already know this, but if you're too young to remember, there's no way to overstate just what a phenomenon who wants to be a millionaire was started in 1998 on ITV in the United Kingdom.

08:49They had the brilliant idea of taking a game show and putting it right in prime time with huge stakes, big money, big risks.

09:00And the presentation was first class all the way.

09:04The music, the heartbeat, the tension.

09:06I remember watching it when it launched in ninety nine in America.

09:11The first million dollar winner did this amazing stunt where he wasted one of his lifelines just to call his dad. Hi, Dad.

09:20I don't really need your help, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to win the million dollars.

09:29People all staring at the center of the universe, the whole world would hold its breath when it watched who wants to be a millionaire.

09:39And I do mean the whole world would hold its breath because this thing spread to every local area with their own version of it.

09:48In fact, the movie Slumdog Millionaire was about the Indian version and went on to win an Oscar.

09:55There's something about that primal tension, about somebody putting it all on the line for real stakes and a life changing amount of money.

10:04The polish, the sizzle, the joy, the despair. It had everything.

10:18God, why do nuns have such awful music when you're on hold?

10:22Fancy winning a million quid to enter our competition?

10:26Call in, answer a question and you could be on your way to becoming a millionaire. Yeah.

10:32Unlike programs in the United States, England had spent most of the TV era forced to limit its cash prizes for contestants in a direct response to the quiz show scandals that had overtaken the U. S.

10:46back in the 1950s until 1993.

10:49The maximum amount of money by law a game show could give away each week was three thousand two hundred pounds.

10:58But when those rules disappeared in the aftermath of the Thatcher administration, all gloves were off and in 1998, Millionaire would become one of the most watched game shows of all time.

11:16The idea was so simple.

11:20Take the classic idea of a British pub quiz.

11:23Make them as high stakes as possible.

11:26Now, of course, game shows exactly like this have been done before.

11:30But what Millionaire had was a new sense of excitement, scale you couldn't imagine.

11:36It wasn't just answering trivia questions to win money.

11:40You had a hard choices to make.

11:43Do you use one of your lifelines on an early question that has you stumped, risking looking like a total fool?

11:50Or do you make a guess and just hope for the best, possibly looking like a bigger fool?

11:56You continue onwards up the ladder for extra money.

11:59You play it safe and walk away with a handful of earnings.

12:03These kind of conflicts had 20 million people watching every broadcast of the show, watching every contestant make life changing decisions in the matter of one hour.

12:17It could go home a changed person or return without a single extra cent in their pockets, which has to sting even more in the UK because their pennies are huge.

12:29Some of the show's subtler touches were, to be honest, a stroke of genius.

12:35The background music sounding like the pulse of a heartbeat, adding tension and stress to every moment of quiet consideration.

12:42Putting it on the air every single night helped to grow an audience in no time flat.

12:50Eventually, Millionaire had become as big as football matches. That's right.

12:54I said football, not soccer, because I'm watching my Ted Lasso.

12:59Everyone was at home making sure to watch so they could catch up around the water cooler the very next day.

13:05And even getting on the show took more than you'd think.

13:10Once you've made it into the cast of Fate Accomplished by calling a hotline at just the right moment, you need to win your shot to sit across from host Chris Tarrant by answering a fastest fingers first question.

13:22You could put the answers in the correct order.

13:26You earned your chance to play.

13:29In three years on the air, the show had only produced two millionaire winners out of its thousands of applicants.

13:36They think about the pressure, the greed, the ambition it would take to become that third millionaire winner.

13:45All of that money, real money.

13:48Also, we're talking British pounds, not cheap American dollars.

13:51And it's sitting right there under bright lights and a watchful eye.

13:57But if you were smart and you were careful, you could get in.

14:02You could grab what you want and get out scot free.

14:09It was the ultimate opportunity to hit it big.

14:19All right, I want you to picture somebody named Charles Ingram.

14:28And he looks just like your stereotypical dad.

14:32He's got a soft complexion, an ever so doughy body, goofy demeanor about himself.

14:37You can imagine him booking a vacation to Disney World, taking his kids out for ice cream during the summer, and then going to the movies with his wife and kids.

14:45The most attention he'll ever garner in his whole life is when he embarrasses one of his daughters before a school dance.

14:52Charles hadn't even heard of who wants to be a millionaire until his family became obsessed with it.

14:59It wasn't until he decided to go on the show himself, decided to try his best to walk out a bit richer than ever before, that he'd really paid any attention at all.

15:09With the structure of Millionaire, you could earn a decent amount, and then just stop, call it there.

15:16No one's gonna question anything, nobody's gonna look at you any different than any other contestant.

15:23But here's the thing, Charles had seen people play the game.

15:28Five months earlier, his wife Diana manages to get on stage first.

15:34She does it because her brother Adrian, who is a self-professed expert in getting on that show, manages to appear four times as a player before he lands himself in the hot seat, shares the secrets with his sister.

15:48So Diana came to play.

15:50Her brother made it deep in the game before falling back to the final safety net of £32,000.

15:57Which yes, is a lot of money, but it ain't no million.

16:01And if he played it just a little bit smarter, worked a little bit harder, he might have just gotten there.

16:15Diana, the wife, considers herself a little bit smarter.

16:24In a classic case of sibling rivalry, she sees it as it's gonna be easy to reach and surpass her brother's winning.

16:32£32,000 was a hard number to reach, but far from impossible.

16:36Loads of contestants had appeared on the show over the last three years, coming in, making some money, going home.

16:43I figure when she walks in, she's thinking, okay, maybe I won't be the third person ever on the show to win the jackpot, but when it comes to making some extra dough for the family, she knew she could do it.

16:56So yes, her brother is a rival to be, but more importantly, he's a coach, helping her every step of the way.

17:03He had a natural talent for getting people on the show, and Diana was gonna be his first test subject.

17:09Crucially, she wouldn't be his last.

17:13So it's April 9th, 2001, and Diana makes her first appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

17:21She comes across as just so earnest in her attempt.

17:25She's smiling, looking hopeful, just thrilled to be on the show, just to get a chance to win some cash. Low stakes, right?

17:33Beat her brother's total, that's it.

17:35She won't leave the stage quite so chipper, though.

17:39Despite all the advice of her rival-slash-coach-slash-brother, Diana makes a lot of mistakes on the show.

17:52She uses a lifeline when she says she already knows the answer, the kind of thing only a rookie or somebody under an immense amount of pressure would do.

18:08Later in the game, she totally forgets that she has a remaining lifeline.

18:13She drops back down to the 32,000-pound safety net.

18:30I know, we're not going to boo-hoo for her.

18:3332,000 pounds is a lot.

18:35But she doesn't get to beat her brother.

18:39That happiness, that sense of joy that she wore for the cameras?

18:44It's gone now, replaced with a more solemn look.

18:48I guess as solemn as anybody getting a check for 32,000 pounds can look.

18:55It's easy to read it as sadness or frustration.

18:58But knowing what we know now, I think she's just pissed.

19:02I think she wanted to beat her brother, and she didn't.

19:06She feels like it's over. Or is it?

19:09Maybe it's that sense of sibling rivalry.

19:14Maybe it's feeling like she didn't get what was hers.

19:19But the Ingrams now have a motivation, a sense of desperation to get some cash.

19:24Diana didn't get what she wanted out of Millionaire to beat her brother.

19:29But damn it, her husband hasn't played yet.

19:31She knows how to get him on the show, and by the ghost of Winston Churchill, he's going on that show.

19:38And that's exactly what happens.

19:39So the Ingrams hear the siren song calling to them.

19:46Charles starts calling the hotline each and every day.

19:49But unlike so much of the country at home, Charles didn't have who wants to be a millionaire fever.

19:54It was just a thing that could maybe make him 32,000 pounds.

19:59His wife got it. His brother-in-law did. Free money, basically.

20:03Had two players right in the palm of his hand to train him.

20:07What's to lose by trying?

20:08I mean, if you have the expertise and the experience to score some free money, why wouldn't you?

20:14Doesn't look too tricky, does it? But let's see.

20:20Let's check the right order first and foremost.

20:22And the right order, fairly obviously, is Death on the Nile, right? Who was fastest?

20:26Charles Ingram in 3. 97. That's very fast. Well done, Charles.

20:33You've got over a million pounds.

20:37Is the Pope Catholic?

20:39Fifteen questions, three lifelines.

20:41He gives me all 15 correct answers.

20:45He wins one million pounds.

20:47Let's play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

20:49Perhaps by luck, perhaps by the grace of Loki, Charles manages to get himself in the hot seat for his first appearance on the show, scoring the third and final slot during the September 9th taping.

21:04He's sitting across from the host, Chris Tarrant, who, as usual, seems absolutely thrilled to have somebody new on the show.

21:13For the first five questions of the show, it actually looks like Charles has this.

21:19He answers each one pretty quickly and, more importantly, correctly.

21:23He's a bit goofy, a little aloof, but generally a solid candidate so far.

21:29He's doing well until the 2,000-pound question.

21:32This is the first stumper of the night, far from the last. Too much knowledge.

21:40I bet you know this one.

21:43In Coronation Street, who is...

21:45I bet you don't.

21:47When have you last seen Coronation Street?

21:49I've never watched it.

21:50I mean, I've seen it sort of in the telly.

21:53Charles has been on for 40 years. I know. Sorry.

21:55OK, have a look at it.

21:56Work out what you want to do.

21:58In Coronation Street, who is Audrey's daughter? Janice. Sally.

22:00I really haven't got the scoopies.

22:03Question six focused on Coronation Street, an immensely long-running soap opera that came up on Millionaire more often than you'd expect.

22:18Could be a coincidence that both shows aired on ITV, but I doubt it.

22:24By the way, notice how he just says he doesn't have a clue and stops talking? That's important. File that away.

22:31We're going to come back to it later.

22:34Unfortunately, Charles ain't seen Coronation Street, so when Chris Tarrant asks him to identify the name of Audrey's daughter on the show, he's stumped.

22:41This is one of those questions that's straight-up simple for any daytime TV fan to answer, but it's not Charles's bag, so he doesn't know it.

22:51And without that knowledge, he burns his first lifeline, asking the audience to help him out.

22:57Question six is not supposed to trip you up, but thankfully, 89% of the respondents choose B.

23:04So he runs with it, and it's on to the 4,000-pound question, which also is not in his wheelhouse.

23:11The River Foyle is found in which part of the United Kingdom?

23:18England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales. The River Foyle.

23:23England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales.

23:25It's worth 4,000 pounds.

23:30Tarrant asks Charles to identify the part of the UK where the River Foyle is found.

23:42The major, out of his depth again, for the second question in a row, burns a lifeline.

23:48This time, he phones his friend Gerald, who luckily gives him the right answer, Ireland.

23:53He's officially cracked 4,000 pounds as day one comes to a close.

23:58Okay, Charles, we've got a winner. God, no. Oh, God, no.

24:04Can we come back tomorrow?

24:07Yep, that's the great news, Charles.

24:10You're coming back tomorrow. You rock. The buzzer sounds.

24:13Filming's over for the day.

24:15Charles' run will resume tomorrow.

24:17Place yourself in that car on that long drive back home after that first disappointing day, after that awful performance, after two burnt lifelines, and imagine the conversations this couple is having.

24:32A third attempt to score big, and it looks like a disaster.

24:38I want to be very careful here to separate what is definitely known versus what I would imagine.

24:45What is definitely known is that during that ride home, two calls were placed to Tequin Wittick, a friend that they had met who was scheduled to play the next day.

24:57We also know that a third phone call to Tequin happened the following morning.

25:02I can't speak for any of the actual humans involved in this case, because I was not there.

25:09But as a certain Heisman Trophy winner said, if I did it, it seems like maybe that would be a good time to throw together a little bit of an insurance policy.

25:21Is that vague enough that I won't get sued?

25:24And let me be clear, this is what I would do if, if I were wanting to.

25:31I should stop talking.

25:32I'm just saying I would take action.

25:35I would be prepared with a plan.

25:38It would be such a simple code that everybody could remember their part, even under the intense pressure of performing live.

25:49Charles's job, whenever he didn't know the answer, say all four options.

25:55Diana and Tequin, when you hear the correct answer and you could tell Charles doesn't know the answer, cough on the right answer.

26:06Not exactly the Enigma machine here, but under pressure, hard to screw up. You would think.

26:14Look, I've already poked fun at this and I'm going to continue to poke fun at this.

26:23But there is a real kernel of truth here.

26:25There's an experience that I'm going to say it's unique to magicians. It's probably not.

26:29People eventually ask me, how does so-and-so famous magician do famous magic trick?

26:34And I always respond with a very simple scenario.

26:38I say, let's pretend that in one hour, you know that cameras are going to show up and you have to replicate that exact feat.

26:49How would you do it?

26:51There's usually a very short pause.

26:54And then whatever comes out of their mouth next is without fail, the exact method that the magician used, followed by the words.

27:02That would be stupid.

27:04The moment I hear the words, but that would be stupid.

27:11I know they've landed it in movies and stories and TV shows.

27:17We love the complicated cons.

27:19We love a million moving pieces.

27:21But the reality is it doesn't work that way.

27:24Those are the outliers.

27:26And so with whatever happened between that ride home and when they show up at the studio the next day, Charles is ready to return to the hot seat.

27:37He even brags to the host that he has a new strategy to do better.

27:41I know you're itching to get up a bit further.

27:44Let's have a look at question number eight.

27:45You've got a 50-50.

27:46This would bring you 8,000 pounds if you gave me the right answer. Here it is.

27:50Who was the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy?

27:52Who was the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy? Adnan Khashoggi. Ronald Reagan. Aristotle Onassis. Rupert Murdoch.

27:58We're back in business.

28:01He's got two friends sitting in the studio with him.

28:07He has his wife Diana, of course.

28:11Without her, Charles wouldn't be on TV right now.

28:14But he also has a friend in Tequin Wittek, the man Diana had spoken with on the phone.

28:21Tequin wants Charles to win, too.

28:23And he's about to announce his presence to anybody paying any kind of attention. Right. Okay. I'm not certain.

28:31I would have thought.

28:34I would have thought that it would be Aristotle Onassis. Why? There.

28:44Did you hear it? Listen again.

28:50I would have thought that it would be Aristotle Onassis. Why?

28:55Yes, that was a cough.

29:00Yes, that was Tequin Wittek.

29:03And yes, it happened to be during the correct answer of the first question of taping for the day.

29:09Note also that Charles doesn't just stop when he says he doesn't know something.

29:13Instead, he starts listing all the possible options.

29:16I mean, that's no big deal, right?

29:19Coughs happen all the time during live television tapings.

29:23On its own, in a vacuum, there's nothing inherently suspicious about a single cough.

29:29This is the first cough picked up by 21 microphones scattered around the studio.

29:34The first of 192 coughs detected in the studio that night.

29:39The first of 32 coughs detected from the panel of potential contestants waiting patiently for their shot at the show.

29:47And most importantly, it's the first of 19 coughs that a prosecutor.

29:52would later allege, in court, were produced by Tequin Whittock.

29:56If you want to hear the sound of a conspiracy, if you want to hear the sound of a good man doing wrong, if you want to hear the sound of money being stolen, listen in as Charles guesses his way into the correct answer.

30:16He works his way around the board, explaining every single answer, why it's right, why it's wrong, and as he restates his answer just before locking it in, there's a cough in the middle of an exceptionally long pause.

30:52For some reason, nobody notices, and yet...

30:54It's the right answer!

30:56The right answer, guys!

30:57Just like that, you're on to question nine.

31:02This time, it's a question about cheese, of all things.

31:09Now, it's worth noting here that Charles, more than ever, seems calm and collected.

31:14He's not the terrified man that the crowd saw the night before.

31:18He's methodically working his way around every question in a way that nobody can quite comprehend.

31:23Even when he feigns doubt, it's just that, a pretense.

31:27However, there is something different about this question than the last one.

31:34In fact, this is the most unique question of the night, because this is the last time Charles will answer a question without somebody coughing in the background.

31:46Because Charles knows this answer.

31:48Emmental is a cheese from which country?

31:50France, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland.

31:52He says he'd like to go for Switzerland, but he's on the counterattack.

31:59He needs to think this through, and he really, really leans into the doubt on this one.

32:07He considers every possible answer to the amusement of the audience, before finding his way back to Switzerland.

32:19I don't know what your strategy and sub-strategy is, but it's working.

32:33You've just got £16,000.

32:39I mean, what could he say?

32:42Dude knows his cheese.

32:44This far into the taping, it's too early for anybody in production to notice that there was no cough on the second one.

32:53With only two points of data, there's no pattern to establish.

32:57And the fact that this one question doesn't have a cough is going to do nothing to help Charles eventually prove his innocence.

33:04Next up is the big one, £32,000.

33:06It's the amount of money both his wife and his brother-in-law came home with, and it's the final safety net offered for the rest of the game.

33:16Charles needs this question more than any.

33:17It's the difference between going home with £1,000 and going home with at least 32 times as much.

33:23Who had a hit UK album with Born To Do It, released in 2000? Coldplay. Top Loader. A1. Craig David.

33:31It's another cultural question, and we know these aren't Ingram's strong suit.

33:36Charles almost bombed on Coronation Street just the night before.

33:44And just like before, Charles starts his strategy, working his way around the board.

33:51He reads off all four answers, and...

33:54I think, I think, I think it's A1.

33:57You got a 50-50.

33:59Craig David, I just can't, I don't think, I've never heard of Craig David, to be honest. It's that simple.

34:15Coldplay, I've never heard of.

34:18Top Loader is a, well, it's part of a rifle, so I don't think it's that.

34:25It's also a Brasier. Is it?

34:29All right, well, thank you then.

34:31I wouldn't know, you know. Nothing. Wait, nothing?

34:33No, that can't be right. No.

34:36There's no cough here.

34:37And this time, Charles legitimately does not know the answer.

34:43That's not speculation, that's a fact.

34:47And as the camera cuts to Diana, you can see she's no longer the smiling, supportive wife in the audience.

34:55She looks off-camera, looking directly at Tequin Whittock. There's no cough.

34:59I know what you're saying.

35:00You promised that every answer would have coughs.

35:05And hey, we're not quite done yet.

35:09Charles sees this as good a time as any to finally activate his last lifeline.

35:15As two of the answers fall away, he's left with two choices.

35:21A1, which he's been dancing around the entire time for a potentially correct answer.

35:27And Craig David, whom he's already said he ain't never heard of.

35:32So let me spoil it for you.

35:35The correct answer is Craig David.

35:37Charles has already dug himself into a bit of a hole. A1.

35:42A1 or Craig David.

35:44Finally, there is a cough.

35:46And this time, it's not from Tequin. It's from Diana.

35:50She's on camera, being filmed throughout the entire show for her reactions.

36:02And she's just been caught coughing right after Craig David is said out loud.

36:07And just like that, after all of this buildup, his lifeline, his ignorance of Craig David, he switches at the last possible moment. Craig David. Locked in answer.

36:19£32,000 in the bag.

36:20A year and a half later, Charles would talk about how he changed his answer after hearing gasps from the crowd when he initially chose A1 as his answer.

36:33But no matter how hard I listen to that tape, all I hear is Diana's cough surrounding Craig David's name. Final answer. Final answer.

36:41All the savings on this classic leather sofa.

39:03Welcome back to the second part of tonight's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire This Tuesday Night.

39:09Just before the break, Major Charles Ingram here was on £16,000.

39:13He used a 50-50, Coldplay and Toploader went.

39:22He then went for a 1. Then, because...

39:24I actually rather lost the plot of his thinking there, but basically because he reckons most of his guesses are 80% wrong.

39:33He changed his mind knowing he'd lose £15,000 if he gave him the wrong answer and went for Craig David, who he'd never heard of.

39:42He just won £32,000.

39:43But all is not well backstage during the filming of this episode.

39:48Between Charles' erratic behavior and his overnight improvement in all things skill, knowledge, and luck, the production crew knows something's up.

39:56This episode isn't over, but already people are talking.

40:03The show's marketing director, Adrian Wolff, notices that something's off during the first question of the night and by the time Charles has £32,000 waiting for him, he's transfixed on a monitor. It gets worse.

40:21Diana's odd coughing was so weird, there are crew members asking during the commercial break if they can stop things down, rewind the tape while the show's still going on, an act that would likely require ceasing filming altogether.

40:36It's a no-go on that.

40:39And it continues with a question worth £64,000.

40:41Gentlemen versus players was an annual match between amateurs and professionals of which sport? Lawn tennis? Rugby union? Polo? Cricket?

40:47That is worth £64,000.

40:49Thankfully, this question moves away from pop culture altogether.

40:54Instead, it's a sports question.

40:57Something that can't possibly be worse for Charles than his attempt at pop music knowledge.

41:06I don't think it's rugby union.

41:11I don't think it's lawn tennis. Polo, po...

41:16No, I just don't recall any connection, but I've heard of it definitely, and I don't have any connection with polo, so I think if I had to guess, and I can, I think I'd take cricket. Oh, God.

41:37It's not fair on everyone else.

41:39I'll go for cricket.

41:40Charles mentions it could be anything.

41:42He hovers around cricket, which produces coughs from Techwin on the sidelines.

41:46He works his way around the board, taking his time, reading out slowly.

42:00He apologises to Chris for repeating his strategy, taking long pauses between each entry on the board.

42:07Finally, after a long walk around the board, he arrives back at cricket.

42:12You got £32,000.

42:13Your wife came, and she won £32,000.

42:16You just won £64,000.

42:18Twice what your wife made on the game.

42:21Twice what your brother-in-law made in the game.

42:24Bragging rights at Christmas for the rest of your life, and a sweet, sweet payday to boot, all with the world's dumbest code.

42:43Congratulations, you did it!

42:44Roll the end music, because nobody ever caught him.

42:46Nobody ever found out.

42:47It was a miracle. The perfect crime. Congratulations. Oh, sorry.

42:50Uh, I thought we were in a different timeline for a second.

42:55We're in this timeline. The dumb timeline.

42:58The dumb timeline where he decides to make a spectacle of the whole thing, gets caught up in the moment, and actually makes a run for a million pounds.

43:15On national television, I cannot emphasize enough how dumb this plan is.

43:19Diana winces, she frowns.

43:20At one point, she covers her face with shame at the fact that Charles just keeps on going because he is delighted, and really thinks he's fooling everyone.

43:30Right, have a look at this.

43:33What type of garment is an Anthony Eden? Overcoat. Hat. Shoe. Tie.

43:38We're at question 13, and we hit our first serious snag.

43:42The question asks what an Anthony Eden is, something Tequin Whittak once again doesn't know.

43:50But unlike earlier in the night, he turns to his fastest finger first neighbor to ask him the answer.

44:03What Tequin doesn't know is that the nearby sound monitors are about to pick up every word he says.

44:12And as soon as he knows the answer, he turns away at a full 90 degrees, right towards the stage, and coughs.

44:21I think it's a hat. I think.

44:23I mean, again, you know, I'm not sure.

44:26Actually, he coughs three times. Tall hats.

44:28Sort of came into fashion, presumably when he was prime minister.

44:31I'm sure it's a hat.

44:34And as soon as the third cough is heard, Charles' answer is locked in.

44:42250,000 pounds, a quarter of a million, and still Charles can't walk away.

44:49Players in this heist are getting sloppier by the minute.

45:05Our host Chris keeps taking the physical checks for every level in Millionaire, rips them in half, and hands Charles a new one.

45:25Charles is now literally holding 250,000 pounds right there in the palm of his hand, and still he can't walk away.

45:34Baron Haussmann is best known for his planning of which city?

45:39Rome, Paris, Berlin, Athens.

45:40I think it's Berlin. I think.

45:43What are you doing, Charlie?

45:45You got so nervous that you just blurted out the answer.

45:51That invalidates the whole strategy.

45:53I think it's Berlin.

45:55Has a level of confidence that Charles hasn't really shown since way back at question nine when he was asked about cheese.

46:13But Charles still had a lifeline then.

46:15Plus, seems like the dude really loved eating cheese.

46:18It's more a German name than an Italian name and Parisian name and Athens name.

46:24And you would have thought if somebody is best known for something, you know, sort of likely to be at home.

46:32I'm really not sure.

46:35Oh, I'm never sure.

46:37I think it's Berlin restricts his ability to move around the board.

46:42He spoke too fast, too soon, and had too much swagger.

46:45Even trying to backstep by adding I think a beat later isn't good enough.

46:52Even Chris finds it odd. I think.

46:55Charles, 10 minutes ago you thought it was 81.

46:59It almost seems like Charles knows he's backed into a corner.

47:03He's talking faster than ever, never giving Techwin a chance to cough.

47:07He hasn't really circled around the board to the other questions.

47:11He's giving no spaces left for an alert on which answer could be correct.

47:19I got to pause here, because if you've been listening, there is a big difference between day one, Charles and day two, Chuck.

47:26Day one, Charles sounds like a military man who's been peer pressured into appearing on a game show.

47:32Day two, Chuck, with all of his chattiness and running through all the answers with his wacky sub strategy talk, sounds like Jack Black playing Forrest Gump. I'm sorry.

47:41I have to go back to how bad this code is.

47:44You see the flaw there.

47:46It's a basic tenet of misdirection that you don't do the big, important action right where all the attention is.

47:52And the attention is always on the right answer.

47:56Why would you cough on the right answer, especially when the powers that be are the ones rewatching the tape and they know the answers? This code sucks.

48:06And the part that drives me nuts is that it could have been almost indetectable.

48:12Remember, the code is very simple.

48:14Read each answer in order.

48:16They cough on the right answer.

48:19And the whole reading them in order part, Charles can't seem to pull off.

48:26He's too busy announcing that is definitely not the right answer.

48:32But let's imagine he can follow instructions.

48:35Simply by using what magicians call the one ahead principle, they could have camouflaged this code and gotten away with the whole thing.

48:43Don't cough on the right answer, but make a pact that you're always going to cough on the next answer after the right one.

48:56This one change would have protected them on two levels.

49:00First off, people would be much less likely to have figured out the code.

49:05Because again, it was a very obvious code.

49:08Second of all, in a court of law, if the producers went after them, which they did, this becomes a lot harder to prove.

49:16Because you have to prove that somehow people coughing during the wrong answers was a way to find out what the right answer is, which sounds bonkers.

49:24Might have even gotten them a winning court.

49:27But we don't live in that timeline.

49:30We live in this one, where this happens.

49:33If I was at home, I'd be saying Berlin if I was watching this on TV.

49:38It's worth 500,000 pounds.

49:40You've dropped 218,000. It's your call.

49:42Take as long as you need. Stop. Nope. Rewind that. Play it again.

49:46Slow it down this time.

49:48I gotta savor this man coughing. No. This moment.

49:54The one that, for my money, is the single most shameful moment in game show con history. Think it's Berlin. Stupid. Dumb. I can't believe.

50:27What the hell are you doing?

50:29Could you even be...

50:30Why not just shout out?

50:31That's not the right answer.

50:34That's not the right answer.

50:36You should choose number three.

50:39How dumb can you possibly be?

50:49Your code is stupid.

50:51The plan is stupid.

50:52You're leaving evidence all over the place.

50:55The sirens are on the horizon.

50:57And now you're literally shouting the answer during the show.

51:01You're wearing a microphone.

51:02People are watching you.

51:04And not just a few people.

51:06It's the most popular show in the world.

51:08What on earth is going on in that empty noggin that's managing to get answers right, but playing like a fourth grader?

51:19You would think that this would be enough to get Charles back on track here. Follow the code.

51:25Make your way around the board. Speak slowly. Be unsure.

51:29And Charles does, to his credit, hear the no.

51:34He knows Berlin is wrong now.

51:37But he's been so certain up until this point. Certainly he won't.

51:41With the cough cutting him off mid-sentence, Charles knows what the right answer is.

51:45But he's also failed to give himself an alibi for switching from Berlin, which moments ago he was swearing up and down was the correct answer, to Paris, which he just said he didn't think was right. He regroups.

52:06He goes through the following two answers.

52:09Circles back around to Paris.

52:10This time noting, I don't know, maybe there's a chance.

52:13Once again, Diana just looks towards Tecuin in the fastest finger first area.

52:19Their plan is failing.

52:20But simultaneously, they're just too deep in.

52:23It's either Berlin or Paris.

52:25And I think it's Paris.

52:26Yeah, I'm going to play.

52:28I'm going to play.

52:29I'm going to play Paris.

52:31You were convinced it was Berlin. I know. I know.

52:36I think I was wrong.

52:40I'm going to go for Paris. Final answer. Final answer.

52:48You had £250,000.

52:51You did not need to play this question.

52:53You thought it was Berlin, Berlin, Berlin.

52:55You changed your mind to Paris.

52:56That brought you £500,000. Yes!

52:59Let's follow Charles's logic without the coughs. It's Berlin. It's absolutely Berlin.

53:08Couldn't be anything but Berlin. It's not Paris. It's not.

53:11Wait, maybe it is Paris.

53:13He thinks it's Berlin, but one more circle around.

53:21And oh, yeah, nope, definitely Paris.

53:28It's like the world's worst mentalist.

53:31Even as an outside observer, even if you remove the cough from the audio track together, this line of thinking makes absolutely no sense.

53:41Even Chris seems confused.

53:42And so Charles arrives at question 15, the million pound question.

53:47He does not have to play.

53:49He can absolutely walk away right now with more money than most people will see from years of work.

53:56He doesn't have to play.

54:02Chris, I'm going to play. No, I'm not. Yes, I am.

54:11I'm going to play.

54:13I am going to play.

54:16A number one followed by 100 zeros is known by what name? Google. Megatron. Gigabit. Nanomole.

54:22It's worth a million.

54:25Nowadays, 20 years later, this question reads insanely easy, certainly easier than the last few in the run.

54:36It does help that Google, which took its name from the correct answer to this question.

54:48Google is one of the world's largest companies now.

55:02Computers were, of course, popular in 2001.

55:05But these days, every single person is online now and can piece together what a gigabit is.

55:11And of course, Megatron is a popular Transformers character.

55:13But in 2001, this is a much more difficult question.

55:17And it's one Charles struggles with right off the bat.

55:20Diana seems actually shocked that he's even going to play.

55:24Maybe it's anger or annoyance or frustration.

55:26Be honest, it's tough to tell.

55:29Behind the scenes, the mood is even more curious. Everybody's quiet.

55:35There's no emotion, no excitement.

55:37Nobody knows what's about to happen right off the bat.

55:41Charles thinks it's a nanomole.

55:43No, wait a gigabit.

55:46He doesn't think it's a Megatron.

55:49And I have to say, I haven't.

55:52I don't think I've heard of a Google.

55:56And there it is, a cough worth one million pounds.

56:01There's a lot going on in the studio at this moment.

56:05Diana looks like she's freaking out when Charles notes he's never even heard of a Google, despite just having said he thinks that's the answer.

56:21Chris notes that he has half a million pounds in his grasp and is going for the one he's never heard of. The audience chuckles. Diana does not.

56:32She's glaring at Techwin, ignoring everything else happening around her.

56:35Meanwhile, the production team on the floor, they seem perplexed.

56:39Even those who haven't noticed the coughs, the odd answer patterns.

56:43They feel like Charles just seems too relaxed.

56:48Considering his placement in the game, he's close to being the third person ever to win a million pounds on the show.

56:59And he's answering this like it's the thousand pound question.

57:02Charles checks the answer again before saying he'll play.

57:05He seeks a fourth cough.

57:07To which Diana visibly says on screen.

57:10Oh, God damn it.

57:12I mean, I guess it's not a mystery anymore, right? And she's mad.

57:18After locking in the answer, the show cuts to a break.

57:25Behind the scenes, all hell breaks loose.

57:29Paul Smith, the head of Celador, the production company behind Millionaire at the time, is contacted to see if filming should be ceased right then and there because of the suspicions of cheating.

57:46He tells them gut instinct isn't enough to cancel a show, so it has to go ahead.

57:52Chris Tarrant will have to award the million pound prize.

57:55There's no other option for now.

57:57Major Charles Ingram came on tonight with just 4,000 pounds.

58:01He only had one lifeline left.

58:03He got up to 500,000 pounds.

58:05Charles, give me that check. 500,000 pounds.

58:08You no longer have that.

58:10You've just won one million.

58:13As the couple leaves this stage, they're stopped by a member of the production team who takes the check back and requests to frisk the couple, a command ordered by higher-up members of the crew.

58:29Finding nothing on either person, they're led back to the dressing room and left alone.

58:51A beer and cigar are fetched for the major in celebration.

58:55After all, he did just, air quotes, win a million pounds.

58:59On stage, Tequan Wittick takes a go at being the next champion of the show.

59:04He leaves with just 1,000 pounds, a pitiful showing.

59:07When he does get on camera, his cough has miraculously disappeared.

59:10The production staff figure out they have exactly eight days to prove their suspicions before the check clears right into the Ingrams' bank account, and they don't want to waste any time.

59:23While Charles returns to work the next day, the press accidentally finds out about the secret winner well before its planned broadcast.

59:33Selador's sound engineer plans to meet with Paul Smith to determine whether or not the coughs were a sign of cheating.

59:40conclusion that yes, indeed, his show had been robbed.

59:44In that eight-day span, the Ingrams discovered that the broadcast of the show had been delayed, a fact that the couple owes to the aftermath of 9-11 and the feeling that a celebration would just be a bad look.

60:02A day later, Charles learns from Diana while he's at work that Paul Smith had called, looking to speak with him.

60:10When she calls him back at his work, this is what happened.

60:13I have to tell you that we have suspicions from viewing the recording of last Monday's program and subsequently studying the tapes carefully, that there were irregularities during the taping of the show in which you participated. Good Lord, no.

60:26Because of that, I have to tell you that these suspicions have been referred to the police. Right.

60:31And thus, we for not for the moment will be airing the program or indeed authorizing payment of the check. Right. Yeah.

60:40Well, I mean, you know, I completely refute that, obviously. Good Lord. All right.

60:45Well, thanks for letting me know. Thank you. Bye.

60:47And with that single phone call, it's over.

60:50The fame, the book deal, the million pound check, everything is gone.

60:54Charles will later issue a public statement much stronger than the one he gives on the phone, in which he claims he sounded odd because he placed the call while around his co-workers. It doesn't matter.

61:09In the court of public opinion, Charles and Diana Ingram are found guilty long before they ever enter a courtroom.

61:16Oh, but that doesn't mean that they don't actually end up going to a courtroom.

61:21In April 2003, a fraud case is heard in which the couple is found guilty of cheating on the show.

61:29Despite all of their best efforts, they're sentenced to an 18 month suspended sentence while Tequin Wittig receives his own 12 month suspended sentence.

61:39In August, Charles is asked by the British military to resign and give up his rank of She does.

61:44To this day, it's disputed whether or not this counts as a dishonorable discharge.

61:49No matter how confident a con is, sometimes it's simply too outrageous to pass by dozens of victims without a single raised eyebrow.

62:00You can nod and smile with one, two people, but the moment a room is filled with cameras and microphones and producers and the promise of major money, once all of that is involved, confidence can only take you so far.

62:24At a certain point, you can't fake it anymore.

62:28You either have to make it happen or you sink with the ship.

62:32But when it comes to confidence, and I do mean only confidence.

62:37This may be the world's greatest con.

62:40This episode of World's Greatest Con was written by Will Sattelberg and me, Brian Brushwood, your humble host.

62:47Production and research by Dog and Pony Show Audio in Austin, Texas.

62:53Credit to Bad Show, The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major by Bob Wiffenden and James Plaskett, as well as ITC's Major Fraud, the Charles Ingram documentary, which, along with other contemporary news articles, retrospectives and archived video made for the bulk of our research.

63:36Additional research by Rachel Oppenheimer.

63:38Of course, you guys have questions and we want to answer all of them at the end of the season, so get yours in by hitting us up at World's Greatest Con at gmail. com.

63:53What if you didn't need to convince anyone of anything?

64:00What if you went on TV, played a straight game with no cheating, no lying, no conniving, and you won a decent chunk of change?

64:07Would you walk away into the forgotten history of daytime TV or would a single person recognizing your face be enough to send you running through the halls for your own freedom?

64:19That's next time on World's Greatest Con.

64:22Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this broker.

64:25Dog and Pony Show Audio.