Quiz

Quiz centres around the true story of Charles Ingram (who later came to be known as ‘the Coughing Major’) and the scandal that surrounded his 2001 win of £1,000,000 on ITV’s ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ and the subsequent court trial.

Charles Ingram, a major in the British Army, entered the quiz show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ in September 2001. Suspicions arose during filming after loud coughing was heard around the same time as Ingram was reading aloud the correct answer. Ingram eventually won the million pounds, but after review of the tapes, Ingram was accused of cheating with the help of his wife, Diana, and an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock.

The play’s framing device is the trial in 2003 when the Ingrams and Whittock faced charges of ‘procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception’. The action interweaves scenes in the courtroom with Ingram’s appearance on the show, and the events leading up to it.

It also covers the history of how the show was devised and commissioned in 1998, along with a brief interactive history of ITV game shows for context; the backroom discussions that followed Ingram’s episode; and the story of how all three of them (plus Diana Ingram’s brother Adrian), against remarkably high odds, came to be contestants on the show.

Along with the drama of the story, the play also includes moments of real audience participation as they are invited to take part in a pub quiz from their seats, and to come onto the stage for brief re-enactments of ITV quiz shows ‘The Price is Right’ and ‘Bullseye’ (all of which form part of the back story). And at the very end, the entire audience is asked to hold up cards indicating their belief in the Ingrams’ and Whittock’s guilt or innocence.