Chris Tarrant has “beef” with Quiz bosses for not including the prosecution’s summing up in the ITV drama
Image Source/ The Sun
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The former Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host has accused ITV of “a bit of production company skulduggery” on the drama, which tells the true story of Major Charles Ingram cheating his way to winning £1 million on the quiz programme. Charles still claims he is innocent, despite being found guilty of deception.
Explaining the real-life court case in 2001, Chris claims:
‘There were so many things in there that they didn’t include. My beef with it [Quiz] is that they did a very strange but very convincing defence QC – that woman, Helen McCrory – a very good defence wind-up, but they did not do any prosecution wind-up.
‘Now, in any court of law the prosecution does the last bit and when the Major and his wife were on the actual court case, the prosecution guy did the most brilliant sum up, bringing all the strands in – the coughing and the bleepers and all the stuff – and went to the jury and they went, “Guilty, guilty, guilty”.
‘They didn’t do that last night at all, they just stopped on her, and you’re going, “Oh yeah, I think he might be… oh poor bloke, poor little man – all that – maybe he’s innocent.”
‘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”‘.
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The contestant took home the £1 million prize, but it was later claimed by ITV that he had been helped by audience coughing at the right answers.
Charles, his wife Diana Ingram and college lecturer Tecwen Whittock, were later convicted of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception following a lengthy trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Speaking on radio show ‘The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X’, Tarrant added:
‘It was very well made wasn’t it? It was actually very well done but it is a drama, it’s not factual.
‘So most of those conversations were made up because that’s what playwrights do. I mean the bottom line is he’s a rotter and a cad and a bandit and he was guilty. No question in my mind at all that he was guilty!’
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