When you offer a million-dollar prize it's not all that surprising that people will come up with a plan to cheat their way to the top.
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The TV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire debuted in the UK in 1998 and it quickly captured the attention of pub trivia patrons who fancied a shot at £1 million.
So they started calling up in droves, trying to get through to an operator and answer a question so they would get selected. And all those calls cost money - some of which went towards the prize money being offered.
By 2001, some people had figured out how to cheat their way to the big prize. The man in the hot seat was former British Army Major Charles Ingram, whose wife Diana had previously won £32,000 on the show.
She was in the audience for the filming of Ingram's episodes, as was waiting contestant lecturer Tecwen Whittock.
Ingram didn't look like anything special on the first day of filming, using up two of his lifelines, but on the second day he swept the board at won the £1 million.
The makers of the show smelt something fishy and went back to have a look at the tapes. What they found was a lot of suspicious coughing.
When Ingram didn't know the answer, he would read out all four options and, when he read out the correct one, a cough could be heard.
That cough was coming from either Diana or Whittock, signalling to him that the answer was right.
Looking back at the footage now, it seems such an amateurish effort all-round; Ingram would say he was confident he had the answer, only to suddenly change his mind and choose another answer he'd earlier dismissed - all because of that sudden coughing fit.
This whole saga is recounted in the thoroughly enjoyable three-part series Quiz (Wednesdays, 8.30pm, BBC First).
The first episode includes the creation of the show - which was originally going to be called Cash Mountain - and delves into the shadowy world of those who offer their services to contestants. For a share of their prize money, of course.
That is the most fascinating part of Quiz, detailing the incredible lengths people went to in an attempt to game the system.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
