The former floor manager of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? has revealed how he watched the Ingrams cheat live on the set as he insisted that the couple are ‘guilty as sin’.
Major Charles Ingram, from Derbyshire, cheated his way to the top prize assisted by a secret syndicate of quizzers who would help contestants on the show, including fellow quizzer Tecwen Whittock,who coughed in the audience to indicate correct answers.
And now Phil Davies has spoken out about the scandal, revealing how he and the crew were left ‘flabbergasted’ as the cheating unfurled before their eyes on the night of filming.
Phil, who worked through hundreds of recordings on the show, told Sky News that the team were suspicious as they had ‘never seen anything like’ the Major’s performance on the show.
Former floor manager at Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Phil Davies has revealed how he watched Tecwen Whittock and Major Charles Ingram cheat on the show
He was situated just metres away from the hot seats in the studio and opposite host Chris Tarrant and Whittock on the set.
He said the set was ‘very small’ and he was able to ‘move about and sit and watch contestants’ when he needed to, coming ‘pretty close’ to those taking part in the show.
Phil described Ingram as a ‘very nice, polite, unexceptional’ man, and said the team had little hope of him getting very far on his second evening in the hot seat.
But as Ingram started answering every question right, with seemingly no prior knowledge of the topic and with a lot of luck on his side, some of the crew became suspicious.
Phil revealed how the team would tell contestants to ‘verbalise what you’re thinking’ as they considered their options for each question, while Tarrant would offer prompts to help contestants come to an answer by asking, “What are you thinking?” or “What are you leaning towards?”
But as Ingram approached the £32,000 question, the Who Wants to be a Millionaire team were unconvinced by his performance, with Phil saying he was unlike any he had ever seen.
Ingram bagged the £1 million prize on the hit British show in 2001, but went on to be found guilty of cheating on the programme
Ingram opted for Craig David as the answer, despite admitting he had never heard of him before.
Phil said the moment was extraordinary because it was a baffling way to come to an answer without any apparent strategy.
He revealed that every other contestant would ‘talk through their knowledge and they always eliminate answers.’
Meanwhile Phil also revealed how the show was edited show, and said contestants could often sit for 10 or more minutes to come to an answer using their reasoning.
However, he said Ingram had ‘no reasoning’, and the crew were left ‘flabbergasted’ by his continued winning streak.
Despite the crews growing suspicions, they were told they had to keep filming.
Ingram, his wife Diana (right), and lecturer Tecwen Whittock were found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in 2003 of cheating their way to the top prize (pictured, 2003)
Convinced something was amiss, Phil started looking around the set and watched as Whittock turned towards the hot seat and coughed ‘at appropriate points’.
Phil said he is now convinced that Whittock was coughing to indicate the correct answers to Ingram, saying: ‘All I can say is the only times [Whittock] coughed were when the major was trying to answer a question, and at no other point – like, no other point.’
He also refuted Whittock’s claims that the studio had been ‘very dusty’, saying: ‘You could have eaten your dinner off that set’ and calling it ‘immaculate.’
After going through the different options for the million-pound question, Ingram landed on the answer and went on to win the jackpot.
But Phil described the atmosphere on set as ‘dead’ and said ‘everyone was just really quiet’.
Phil revealed that he watched Whittock ‘turn towards the hot seat and cough’ while Ingram was on the programme
The Ingrams were searched as soon as filming stopped, says Phil, but he’s not sure about Whittock.
Phil went on to be a witness during the trial and spoke about the coughing, revealing he ‘didn’t elaborate anything’ and had ‘no doubt at all’ that the cheating had been intentional.
He has since left the world of television, and now lives in France running a family holiday resort, remaining convinced that Ingram and Whittock are ‘guilty as sin’ of cheating.
The drama Quiz about the scandal starring Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford as the couple, Michael Jibson as co-conspirator Tecwen Whittock, and Michael Sheen as Tarrant, concluded on ITV on Wednesday night