BBC News Online: Entertainment: TV and Radio

Millionaire winner sues quiz show

Major Charles Ingram won £1m on the quiz show

Major Ingram instructed solicitors Morgan Cole to take legal action on Tuesday in respect of what he called "the dishonoured cheque" from Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Ltd.

The programme makers refused to pay Major Ingram after suspicious coughs from the audience on last week's show.

Morgan Cole issued the claim form on Tuesday afternoon.

"Mr Ingram hopes he will be vindicated by the successful conclusion of this claim."

The allegation of iregularities, made on 14 September, was immediately and strenuously denied by Major Ingram, 38, of Upavon, Wiltshire.

Damages

He instructed his solicitors to request the programme makers to specify the allegations he faced - and threatened that if the information was not forthcoming by Friday he would issue proceedings against the programme makers for damages.

A member of the quiz show's production team reportedly heard coughing in the audience and thought the number of coughs coincided with the number of the correct answer.

Scotland Yard has been investigating the allegations, and the £1m cheque has not been paid while the investigation goes ahead.

But a contestant on TV quiz Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has said it would have been virtually impossible for £1m winner Charles Ingram to have cheated.

College lecturer Tecwen Whittock said he and several other audience members had innocently coughed during the major's £1m round.