Saturday, February 26, 2011

Wiki-wanderings - was the Millionaire quiz fraud Major innocent?

I can't remember now what I was looking for, but wanderings in Wikipedia took me to the entry for one James Plaskett, who has written an extended essay arguing that Major Charles Ingram who, along with alleged accomplices, was convicted a few years back for cheating on the television quiz programme 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' is innocent.

I found Plaskett's arguments rather convincing, although he is preaching to the converted in my case. I always thought the prosecution petty, vindictive and self-serving by the production company, and the evidence flimsy and unconvincing.

James Plaskett is clearly an interesting character, being a chess grandmaster, £250,000 winner himself on Who wants to be a millionaire, married to the poet Fiona Pitt-Kethley and brother of the person who invented the snickometer at cricket. At least that's what it says on his Wikipedia entry.

2 comments:

Mark Thompson said...

I interviewed James Plaskett on this subject last years (see here: http://poddelusion.co.uk/blog/2010/04/09/episode-29-9th-april-2010/).

He is indeed very persuasive and I am also convinced that Charles Ingram is innocent.

Jim Eadon said...

I agree, the whole thing was a stitch up. Judges often make stupid or corrupt decisions.