Quiz

Southwark Crown Court where Charles Ingram...

Army Major Charles Ingram and his wife Diana

arriving at court today to face the cameras.

Inside, Ingram is to hear claims

that he teamed up with a coughing accomplice,

alleged to be college lecturer Tecwen Whittock,

to cheat his way to the £1 million jackpot

on ITV's hit quiz show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

CLAMOURING

Oh, hello.

I believe we're charged with co-conspiracy.

It's nice to meet you both

at last.

Yes, the accused look, and to all intents and purposes, are

respectable middle-class, middle-aged,

middle England men and women.

At the end of the day, this was just a game.

A television quiz show enjoyed by millions,

but creating in a select few

this unhealthy obsession

that spilled over into an audacious heist.

Who wanted to be a millionaire?

My God, these three certainly did.

You are facing a 50-50,

guilty or not guilty.

The Crown believes the answer to be self-evident.

They are guilty as charged.

Today, one home in three throughout the British Isles

sits spellbound several hours a day before a magic cube.

A new public service is about to be launched

over the rooftops of old London.

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, a holiday of a lifetime.

You've won a marvellous 14-day holiday for two.

You've got a radiogram and a nice easy chair to sit on.

Bern is the capital of... Switzerland.

Edinburgh. Scotland.

This wonderful microwave oven and a superb range of kitchen equipment.

Let's play Bullseye.

For £50. Who was beaten by Martina Navratilova

in the 1987 finals? Steffi Graf.

APPLAUSE Welcome to Mr and Mrs.

We've got two happily married couples back there,

ready and willing to hand over their nuptials to me.

It's nice to see you, to see you...

Nice!

Hi, sir.

David Liddiment. I start today.

What department?

Uh... I think, uh...

Well, I suppose all of them. I'm the new Director of Programmes.

Oh! Stand by your beds, best behaviour, new boss is here.

God, I hate changes of leader.

And them wanky new ideas.

David! Claudia. Head of Entertainment.

Hi. Claudia, hi. How are you?

Surprise, surprise, it's Claudia who gets to him first.

You look... I look... I look like hell.

Just had baby number two, that's my excuse, anyway, so...

Uh... Time for a quick catch-up?

Walk and talk? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm interested in events.

Event television.

Why do the BBC always trounce us in the big stuff?

Diana's funeral a couple of weeks ago,

one of the most watched programmes in TV history,

and obviously, tragic as that was, goes without saying... Tragic.

..people still want to gather as a nation

to experience something big together.

I'm just not sure the classic light entertainment of old fits into that.

OK.

Well, we've always gotten our game show formats from America.

So time for something new.

No, time to invent our own.

The classic TV game show can be

the must-see TV thingy that you're looking for.

I'm not just saying that to save my department's skin.

Claudia, I've got Martin Bashir coming in this morning to discuss...

Very important, but if you just let me bring some people in...

I have one. I think I have one.

It's an old one. The last gaffer rejected it.

Brilliant. Why is it an event?

Because they're going to give away £1 million.

The idea then would be that the higher up the mountain you climb,

the more your time would deplete, the way that oxygen might deplete.

No. Stop trying to complicate it.

It's simple. Questions and answers.

Paul, for crying out... This isn't 1955.

Everyone else is making shows where you spy on strangers in a house

or throw them out of helicopters. Yeah. Crap. Desperate.

This is the show we're going to pitch.

Re-pitch.

We could set it on actual mountain.

Well, like a little one.

Like in...

Wales or...

Look, right, I'm with Paul.

It's what we did on the radio show with Chris.

Answer a question, you get it right, you double it,

so you keep doubling, so the higher up you go,

the more you can earn, but the more you can lose.

People love it.

But the networks don't.

That's why they all turned it down the first time.

Fusty old game show.

It's not a game show, it's a quiz.

That's the joy of it.

People love a good pub quiz.

A uniquely British invention combining our two greatest loves,

drinking and being right.

Nope. Fine. You write it down, then.

Ever the teacher, you do it.

That's not how you spell that. Question three.

The Living Room War was the nickname

given to which conflict

perceived to be the first truly televised war of the 20th century?

Suez? Korean?

Maybe it is Suez. No, it was too early,

we didn't have a TV during Suez.

Vietnam. It's Vietnam.

Are you sure, Dad?

Uh... Who here got down to the last four on Fifteen To One,

toughest show on television?

Vietnam.

Diana. Diana?

Telephone. Diana.

Guess who for 12 points.

"I say, darling, is that the time? Deary me.

"In the army, one must always be on time.

"Golly."

Oi! No phone calls. Cheating.

I'm not cheating. We don't cheat.

Charles, it's Tuesday,

pub quiz night, my one night...

No, hello, darling. No, no, no, I'm not asking you to come home,

it's just that Polly wants you to hear her piano piece before bedtime.

She's got all the way through the first bit.

I'll hold the phone out. One second. One sec.

Go. Go.

PLAYS 'AIR ON THE G STRING' BY BACH

Question four, in which country was the Rosetta Stone found in 1799?

That's all I've got.

That's all she's got.

That's all she's gotten.

That's all for now, darling.

Oh, well, tell her well done. I'll be home soon.

Lots of love. Next question...

It's exciting!

Brand-new school, new children, new friends.

It's just memorising all the names.

They'll need a system.

Can you call the landlord tonight about the boiler?

Last thing we needed was cold showers this morning. Sure.

You feeling all right today? Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

It's a bit of a step down, isn't it, training other officers?

Well, it's a step around. It's a step different.

It's nice to be near your dad and Adrian, isn't it?

Yes, although you should have seen him last night,

so competitive, he drives me crazy.

But you're quite competitive too in a lovely way.

Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition, Charles.

So, it's multiple choice,

which has never been done on telly before, ever,

and you get to see the question and four possible answers

before you decide to play.

Right, so it's easier, then?

No, if anything, it adds to the torment.

And there's no clock, they get as long as they want.

Well, where's the tension?

Because we're watching people potentially

making life-changing decisions.

And we'll just sit there and watch them go through it all,

the whole gamut of emotions, waiting.

And then there's also the matter of

the largest game show prize in the history of television.

Right, yeah, so you're gonna bankrupt us all.

Oh, there's nothing to worry about.

It would take a very unique sort of person to risk going all the way.

That fear is built into the show.

Well, let's try it. Play it with you.

Now.

Sure, why not? Love a game.

And we thought, to make things more real,

you could put your own money in.

£250, say?

For the psychology, you know.

Oh, you did, did you?

Right. Yeah.

You think I just carry £250 around with me?

Certainly close. 230.

Claudia, do you have, um...

What, you want me to put in... 20 quid, I'm putting in 230.

Yeah. Yeah, OK.

Let's play...

What was that?

That's the..

the lights going down.

Something along that.

OK. Question one,

what would an aborigine do with his wurlie?

Would he, A, eat it,