Britain: Gameshow host Chris Tarrant told a jury yesterday of his shock when told a British army major may have "cheated" his way to the top prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
"Certainly, I couldn't believe it," he recalled, before adding: "I didn't want to believe it.
"You don't expect anyone to come on a show like that to cheat." The 56-year-old quizmaster insisted, however, that despite Major Charles Ingram's unique performance that night he had heard nothing to indicate anyone might have been using coughs to guide the contestant to the right answer.
It simply would not have been possible for him to have become aware of someone with a "specific" throat problem.
"I am so focused, particularly at that level because you are talking about £1 million, unless there was somebody in the audience with Morse code," he said.
"But it was an extraordinary night. His reactions were unlike anything we had ever seen," the entertainer told London's Southwark Crown Court during a 55-minute witness box appearance.
"I was trying to work out quite where his mindset was going. It was very hard to follow." The first indication something might be amiss was when Mr Tarrant popped into the outside broadcast truck after the programme and two members of the production team told him they had "suspicions" about Major Ingram's win.
Mr Tarrant, who for once found himself in the unusual position of having to answer questions, was giving evidence on the fourth day of the trial of the major, his wife and a college lecturer.
Major Ingram (39), and his 38-year-old nursery nurse wife, Diana, both of High Street, Easterton, Wiltshire, and Mr Tecwen Whittock (53), who lives at Heol-y-Gors, Whitchurch, Cardiff, and is head of business studies at Pontypridd College, South Wales, each deny a single charge of "procuring a valuable security by deception". - (PA)