Q. Who wants to see a cheating millionaire? A. 17 million

Jason Bennetto,Crime Correspondent
Wednesday 23 April 2003 00:00 BST
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For sheer amusement, not to mention astonishment, the spectacle of a slightly pompous army major wheedling his way to a £1m fortune aided by a coughing accomplice was hard to beat. Especially when everyone knew he had been cheating.

And such was the draw of Charles Ingram's painful, hesitating progress to the jackpot on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? that the long-delayed programme attracted almost 17 million viewers. It was the biggest television audience for a factual programme since the funeral of Diana, Princess Of Wales in 1997.

They watched the major pick his way through the 15 rounds of the ITV quiz – ITV's Tonight special, A Major Fraud, averaged 15.1 million viewers, peaking at 16.7 million in its final half-hour, according to unofficial figures.

Ingram perambulated around the multiple-choice questions before always settling, invariably after splutters from the college lecturer Tecwen Whittock, on the right answer. Chris Tarrant, the quizmaster, is seen expressing his incredulity that the major eventually offers as his final answer options which he had seemed to abandon. Ingram, his wife Diana – seen watching tensely from the audience – and Whittock each received suspended sentences for the attempted deception earlier this month.

Time and again, viewers saw Ingram slowly read out each of the four options waiting for a signal. On a number of occasions, he performed dramatic U-turns when well-placed coughs from Whittock persuaded him he was wrong.

Whittock plans to appeal, while the Ingrams are awaiting legal advice. Ingram accused the documentary makers yesterday of giving a "one sided" story of the case and "conning" viewers.

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