Has anyone read Bad Show?

[thejinkazama]

Hi folks,

Has anyone read Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major? I got it for my Kindle last year. From what I can remember, the author made a compelling argument for the innocent of Charles Ingram, the man found guilty of cheating on the UK version of the game back in the 2000s. Despite reading their arguments I remained unconvinced as to their veracity, having watched the documentary and original run of the episode in my youth and numerous times since.

What do you think?

Paul

[Peachfanclub]

I for one don’t like how they touted Charles to be completely dumb in the documentaries. In Who Wants to Steal a Million, Chris stated that his first guess on just about every question was the wrong answer. It seems when they found out his “strategy and sub-strategy” they wanted to make it seem like he relied on the cough through his entire run, as though he really didn’t know any of the answers after question 2.

I looked over the rest of his run from his second night in the chair, and I found that in actuality, in each of questions 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13 — more than half of the questions he faced that night — the first answer he mentioned was the correct answer. So for the remaining questions; 10, 14, and 15; the only conclusion I can draw is that he truly didn’t know the answer to those three questions in particular and he’s probably not a fan of pop music. Whether he actually knew the answers to the other five questions is up for debate, but I also noticed that there was no coughing at all on the £16,000 question, but he still went through the motions of reading off the four answers. Maybe it’s more likely he knew the answer to that question?

I find it unfair to link Diana with that whole scheme, as her only cough came at the £32,000 level when Charles was just about to lock in A1. I reckon Diana’s cough was less blatant than all of Tecwen’s were looking at the footage of her cough during the question. She was sitting further away from Charles anyway, so who knows if he could hear her anyway.

I now feel like one of the producers who tried to play devil’s advocate whilst reviewing Charles’s run, but that’s all I can say to defend him. At £500,000, Tecwen did seem pretty blatant in signaling to Charles that Berlin was wrong, and at the million I guess Charles had such little faith in googol that he felt the need to check with Tecwen four times. I also agree that he could’ve possibly gotten away with £250,000 had he stopped there, but being able to trace the glaring evidence from the last two questions all the way to the beginning of night 2, I’d say he got what was coming for him. No wonder Diana was so mad at him after his run ended.

tl;dr To answer your question, no I’ve not read Bad Show. I do believe he cheated, but it only becomes blatantly obvious to me at the £500,000 question.

[thejinkazama]

Thanks for getting back to me. Now that you've pointed it out I happen to agree with you - they do try to make him out to be very stupid throughout the documentaries. This surely can't have been the case to come up with a scheme like this and have the audacity to pull it off. He may have had an inkling towards some of the questions but with the stakes so high and the help on hand, he would have wanted to be sure before committing.

For me, it was more and more obvious as the night went on but I tend to agree that if they had stopped just a question or two earlier they might have got away with it. I'm fairly certain that Diana was in on it from the beginning but wasn't in (full) support. The number of anxious looks she gives towards Tecwen and her comment along the lines of "Oh God, don't" make it clear to me that she felt the scheme had gone too far.

I'd definitely recommend giving the book a read if you find some time. I'm in the midst of reading something else right now but I may return to it in the future.

He's definitely not a fan of the likes of A1 or Craig David, that's for sure.