Michael T. Mondak speaks about a 21st century game show scandal

Through the magic of the Internet Archive, I came across a May 2003 edition of Primetime Thursday that I had not seen since its original broadcast on ABC.  It is about the infamous Who Wants to be a Millionaire Major Fraud.  For the purposes of this entry, I am talking about the original version in Great Britain.  The players are a couple named Charles and Diana - no, not that Charles and Diana - I am talking about a major in the British Royal Army and his wife, plus a business and economics professor named Tecwen.  Other minor players include host Chris Tarrant, and a series of staff members with the show and detectives from Scotland Yard.

Now before I retell the story, let me point out that this is about the first scandal that had occurred on a game show since the infamous big money quiz show scandals of the 1950s, when Herbert Stempel and Charles Van Doren were fed answers to questions that they would be asked prior to the show, leading to Congress to make it illegal to rig a television game show.  Yet there was an alleged scandal that had occurred in June 1984 on Press Your Luck when Michael Larson from Lebanon, Ohio won $110,237 (in United States dollars) in cash and prizes by studying the board patterns prior to his taping, leading him to ultimately “whammy the whammy” (which would have been the preferred way of saying that Larson had beaten the board, unless ABC thought that was too fancy of a phrase to use).

The story begins with Adrian Pollock, who in 2000 won £32,000 (note that for the purposes of this entry, all money is in British pounds) after missing a question about the month Labor Day falls in the United States (he incorrectly guessed May instead of September).  His sister Diana Ingram also won that same amount when she incorrectly guessed that Edward Lear wrote the nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark” (it was Lewis Carroll).

In September 2001, just prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, Major Charles Ingram made it to the hot seat.  The major breezed through his first five questions with relative ease, then appeared to be stumped about a certain character on the British soap opera institution called Coronation Street.  He had to employ his Ask the Audience lifeline to get him to win £2000.  The next question also appeared to stump the major until he used his Phone-A-Friend lifeline.  After his £4000 win, time ran out for the episode, which meant that the game would resume at the top of the next episode.  Staffers were not expecting him to get any further.  Yet one of the major’s brothers, who was sitting in the overflow seating section, was observed by staffers several times using his cell phone during the episode.

At the top of the next episode, the major revealed his strategy to review each possible answer.  When the game resumed, the coughing began from Tecwen Whittock, the professor.  Whittock portrayed himself as a serial “quiz show loser” who had a persistent cough due to allergies and a hay fever.  Cameras appeared to show Diana Ingram focused on Tecwen, however, Diana said she never even met Tecwen. These “coughs” appeared to coincide with the major talking about the correct answers (with exception of the £16,000 question, which the major knew the correct answer immediately).  The major fraud was completed after the major correctly identified the term googol for a 1 followed by 100 zeroes, winning £1,000,000.

Scotland Yard detectives investigated the incident and ultimately, the major and his wife, along with Tecwen, were convicted by a majority of the jury on charges of theft by deception.  All three received suspended sentences of 12-18 months, fined £80,000 and costs.  Celador refused to pay the major his million pounds.

And who was the next contestant to play after the major fraud was completed?  Why, it was Tecwen.  All of a sudden, Tecwen’s cough was gone.  Sadly, he only won £1000 after he failed to identify that keftedes are Greek meatballs.