The Coughing Major: Guilty -cough- or Not Guilty

Great Debates
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This concerns a TV show game show, but the issue has been argued in the Old Bailey, so this surely counts as a Great Debate …

Here in the UK we’ve tonight finally seen the footage from the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” sessions where it was determined in court that Charles Ingram, his wife and another constestant tried to defraud the production company out of the million pounds prize money. The debate: did they try to or didn’t they ?

There were the two programmes tonight. ITV ran the 1 1/2 hour long “Tonight” special, complete with all that British television could throw at a big event. Actually, not quite. Rageh Omaar is under contract to the BBC and otherwise detained, so it was just (and how 21st century does that sound) Martin Bashir presenting. Very much the case for the prosecution. And pretty convincing, simply based on the stuff that hadn’t really come out during the trial.
About half a dozen different sets of witnesses were suspicious on the night. Including one other contestant who’d figured out exactly what was going on. Plus, while he was careful to point out afterwards that, as the presenter, he’s so focussed that he won’t detect any cheating, it’s obvious that Tarrant felt that something out of the ordinary was going on.
While not especially damning in itself, there are also the audio recordings of Whittock confirming a couple of the answers with fellow contestants, then coughing.
Finally, we have the footage of Mrs. Ingram in the audience. The one question that Whittock didn’t strategically cough in was a pop music one. And this, the one that you might expect neither Ingram nor Whittock to know, is the one she started coughing in, in just the right places. Plus a habit of glancing in Whittock’s direction elsewhere, though this is difficult to judge without seeing the unedited footage.
The ITV2 version of just Ingram’s appearance edited into a “normal” show was also interesting. The framing was familiar, but it still was cleverly slanted against them. The cutaways to her were chosen to be particularly damning. And the sound balance was clever. Not the full Whittock coughs, but still there in the background. Just so that you think “was that a cough ?” and then “bloody hell, yes it was and at just the right time !”

Ultimately, what was most damning to me was what I’d thought all along. He never gives the impresssion of knowing the answers. Particularly since the ones he visibly has “normal” difficulty over are those I would have found hard (the Coronation Street one, the River Foyle and the Craig David one). The supposedly hard ones are ones you either know or you don’t. And anybody who does know them, even if they’re bluffing, could “talk themselves into” the right answer. Googol - and you don’t mention the connection with Google ? That just beggers belief.

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Is there a link you’d recommend to bring a US reader unfamiliar with the scandal up to speed?

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This ‘special’ aired in Aus last night in place of our own domestic version. It was fairly obvious if you knew what to listen for but apart from that the Major’s thought process was a strange one to say the least, strange enough to raise suspicion. “It must be Berlin” in response to the Baron question “but I really don’t know” Then “Paris? (cough cough) Yes it must be Paris but I really don’t know, Yes I’ll go with Paris” I’ve never met anyone who thought so haphazardly in that kind of situation.

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It was so obvious, he was like “I definitely don’t think it’s Paris cough… well, it sure could be Paris, time to commit”.

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Link to the story (or part of it) for those not in the know.

I only saw 45 min or so of the show last night (from £32,000 to £500,000) and it was my impression that the coughs were greatly amplified in the bits of the actual quiz that they showed. Espesially in the “cough - no!” response to the Major almost choosing Berlin. Perhaps the programme said something about this at the start, but if they were that loud during the recording and no-one jumped in and arrested them on the spot, I’d want to know why…

For me, the most damning thing was seeing his wife constantly glancing over to the left of the “pit” when things were tense, as if anticipating a cough…

On the other hand, Tecwen Whittock, the “genius” who helped the Major along to the million ended up with just £1,000 later in the same show… if it was tactics for him to lose early and reduce suspicion, why didn’t they quit at £125,000 when no-one would have paid as much attention?

All very confusing…

Grim

6

Here’s another explanation of the documentary from ITV’s own website.

It was explained last night that the soundtrack had been amplified above the normal level for an original broadcast of the show. The amplified version was the one used in court.

The chief argument against last night’s show was that it was presented by Martin Bashir, who couldn’t sell me water in the desert. But several other arguments support the prosecution.

Charles Ingram was a “rollover” contestant – the first night’s show ended while he was in the player’s chair. He performed pretty badly on that first night, using up two lifelines to reach £4,000. Between that and his next appearance, there was a record of numerous telephone calls between Mrs Ingram and Tecwen Whittock (who was due to sit among the fastest finger group on the second night). You have to ask yourself why all those calls were made. These people had never met, but Whittock had contacted Mrs Ingram previously to enquire about her book on how to win big prizes on the show. She and her brother had both won £32,000 as previous contestants and Mr & Mrs Ingram had also appeared on a Couples version of the show. WWTBAM presenter Chris Tarrant remarked last night that she had seemed very disappointed to have won only £32,000 on her own appearance.

On the second day, Ingram claimed to have a new strategy and it was then that the coughing routine started. There are several plausible medical explanations for Whittock’s cough. There is even room for doubt about the timing and “meaning” of the coughs, and whether Ingram could hear the coughs. But Ingram’s behaviour in selecting the correct answer again and again in spite of having no logical process of deduction is extremely suspicious IMO.

My suspicion grew the higher the prize money rose. I don’t believe that anybody would have been prepared to gamble up to £468,000 on a total guess with odds of 4-1 against. Ingram was guessing (or being told) the answers for question after question on the second show. He admitted that he had no idea what the answer was, he read out the four options and them miraculously “deduced” which one was right.

From this transcript, the behaviour over the £1,000,000 question was the most damning:

The bit I’ve given in blue is the killer. What process of elimination? There were numerous other pieces of circumstantial evidence, there was the general suspicion of other contestants and production staff, but it was Ingram’s behaviour in the chair on the second night that was so very, very suspicious.

Whittock’s incompetence in his own turn in the chair could have been part of the act or it could have been genuine ignorance on his part. Part of his defence evidence was that he’s appeared on other quiz shows and performed badly (so he’s no genius). But in any case he was asking other fastest finger contestants for opinions before giving his cough.

Guilty as charged as far as I’m concerned.

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Guilty as sin

He didn’t "show his working: the first woman to win a million went into a long spiel on each question, indicating valid reasons why she was eliminating various answers. The Major didn’t do this once - he merely hummed and haa-ed, and changed his answers way too quickly, with no reasoning given.

Having said that, the documentary was a typical Martin Bashir-style travesty which didn’t give allow the viewer any leeway at all.

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And I can’t type this morning.

[cough]

Sorry, I mean, I can type this morning.

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Last night’s TV show in the UK made it clear that the coughs we heard were the filtered versions prepared later and not those that would have been heard during a normal showing of the contest. The evidence seemed absolutly damming to me although I appreciate that there might be another side of the story to be told.

What seemed odd was how unsubtle the system was. If the conspiritors had a system that allowed Major Ingrams to indicate what he though was the correct answer (e.g. the first that he reads aloud ‘to himself’) then the simple absence of a cough could be enough of a confirmation without taking any risks. But no, the Major seemed to need multiple cough-confirmations in some cases. Also, the Major did not seem to provide any sort of cover when changing his mind - for example, providing some sort of chain of reasoning or acting out taking a mad gamble. But no, apparent vasilation was followed by sudden and (otherwise) inexplicable confidence.

One thing that was not clear from the TV show was the degree of complicity of Mrs Ingrams. She did cough once, but that did not of itself demonstrate that she was part of a plot - perhaps she could not help herself and perhaps could not have expected to have been heard. But her glaces and stares (apparently) directed to Mr Whittock and her later actions after the show do suggest that she knew what was going on.

As for Mr Whittock, he did seemed to need confirmation of some of the questions from his fellow competitors with whom he exchanged whispers - also caught by the microphones. Wispered confirmation was quickly followed by coughs!

10

Guilty as charged. It was almost laughable how blatant their system was. The paris question was the funniest:

Shit, if you’re going to cheat at least cheat well

11

When the guy went “cough…no” I cracked up. Unbelievable.

The wife doing her bit was very obvious as well.

Here’s a question. Can they make money from selling their stories since they were found guilty? I don’t have a problem with that BTW just wondering coz I was asked it by a co-worker this morning and couldn’t answer.

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I had gathered that the plan was to stop earlier but they got greedy at the time. Apparently that was what the argument was about between the wife and the major after the show.
Whittock was not very good, he asked his neighbour for several of the answers which he passed on via the coughs.
What amazes me was that the jury took 3 days to convict. It took me about 10 seconds

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And of course, Whittock crashed out with only £1,000 when he got into the hot seat - an attempt to take the heat off, or rank incompetence? You decide.

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Surely this pair are the new Hamiltons.

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A disclaimer: I also think that they are as guilty as all get out.

But it seems to fall on me to play a little devil’s advocate.

Was there anything in last night’s show that really proves a criminal case? Beyond doubt? All we really have from an evidencial standpoint is a rather bizarre little man who rambles and changes his mind a lot and a guy with a medical condition that leads him to cough.

Some questions that spring to mind:[ul][li]What the hell was that bait-and-switch that the programme makers were trying to play with us at the beginning? They insinuated some plot with mobile phones and vibrating pagers but then just said that this was never prosecuted and left it at that. But if there is no evidence then why bring it up? They were trying to plant guilt in our minds from the get-go with nothing to back it up. I don’t like such mind games.[/li]
[li]How many other coughs did Whittock make during the programme? We’ve been shown the ones that back up prosecution’s story. But on 5-live this morning Ingram suggested that there were thirty-eight other coughs made by Whittock during the show that were nothing to do with any answers. I view this as vital context.[/li]
[li]So lots of people in the gallery were suspicious. So what? I want to know on how many other occasions they had voiced suspicion over perfectly innocent contestents. Was this behaviour of theirs a pattern? Did they do it every week? Or was the first time that they’d ever been paranoid about a contestent? [/li]
[li]Either way of course, a bunch of paranoid people is simply not evidence. Sometimes as I walk to my car at night I become convinced that someone is following me. This does not mean that I am right.[/li]
[li]The major actually seemed to hit on the right answer himself quite a lot of the time. Contrary to what the programme makers said, there were quite a few questions where the only answer that he read out was the correct one, which he then played. [/li]
[li]More damningly: if they had the alleged system then why the hell would he break it for the five hundred thousand pound question. That is a fuck-load of money to suddenly decide to go it alone on. This question (with the apparent “cough-no”) has been held up as the really damning one but to me the break of the pattern is actually a significant point against the prosecution. [/li]
[li]And what was all that crap about the “is this an all-stop signal?” Make up your mind Bashir! Either Whittock was saying that the answer was Paris or he was saying all-stop. One or the other please.[/li]
[li]There has also been testimony that Mrs Ingram knows nothing about pop music and certainly would not have known the Craig David answer.[/ul]I hadn’t really thought about this issue until this afternoon and yet these are the questions that immediately spring to mind. I’m sure that if I’d have taken notes there would be more. I certainly remember thinking on many occasions during the “documentary” that I would like to hear the other side, that we were being led by the nose down one path but that there could be alternate explanations. [/li]
I’d just ask everyone to remember that you can prove anything with sufficiently skilled editing, that Celedor have a lot to gain out of this and that this “documentary” allowed no alternate views even though they had been asked to. You need a lot of certainty to convict on a criminal case. Personally I think that there was indeed a scam but, based on last night’s show, I for one would certainly not convict them.

pan

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I thought the coughting and the cough-no paled in comparison to the microphone picking up Tecwen stage whispering “It’s a googol” about 15 seconds after the answers were revealed.

What I’m amazed at was that they only got suspended sentences. They were found guilty of attempting to defraud Celador out of £1,000,000, and all they got were suspended sentences?

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And fined £15,000 each and ordered to pay £10,000 costs, so they didn’t get of scot free…
News story of the sentence

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Excellent article about the trial here:

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Right enough. It looks very suspicious. But what does it prove? Nothing. He could have immediately thought Berlin because of the German-sounding name and then had an internal thought process. There is nothing in the rules of Millionaire that states that you have to show your working.

Somebody has to tell me why Ingram would suddenly choose to abandon the rules of the scam on the £500k question before I’ll even consider this case proven. And tell me why in a way that is consistent with the prosecution claim that he is not simply a guy that changes his mind on a whim, since that is the defence side of the argument. If he’s allowed to change his mind for something as important as that then he’s allowed to change it when it comes to quiz answers too.

pan

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I agree totally, kabbes, the programme makers wanted to have their cake and eat it. They set Ingram up as a fraudster, and then, when his actions went against the supposed pattern on the Paris question, they blew him down as a *stupid * fraudster who couldn’t even follow his own plan.

Since the guy’s been found guilty in a Court of Law as well as on telly, I’ll trust the Law. (IMHO the most damning piece of evidence was the phone calls between Mrs Imgram and Whittock – didn’t she completely deny them, despite definite evidence of them?)

But this programme set a dangerous precedent, suggesting that emotional reactions, speculation and paranoia is evidence enough to condemn somebody.