'I thought he played fair'

The 56-year-old entertainer said he was elated when Charles Ingram managed to answer the £1 million-winning 15th question correctly.

He told Southwark Crown Court that if he had he suspected the father-of-three had not been "playing by the rules", he would never have signed the seven-figure cheque.

Ingram, 39, and his 38-year-old nursery nurse wife Diana, both of High Street, Easterton, near Devizes, and Whittock, 53, of Whitchurch, Cardiff, who is head of business studies at Pontypridd College, south Wales, each deny one charge of procuring a valuable security by deception.

It claims they did this by dishonestly getting game show host Christopher Tarrant to sign the £1 million cheque on September 10, 2001.

The quiz master told the eight-woman, four-man jury : "If there was anything wrong, I certainly would not sign it."

After the officer left the set with the cheque, Mr Tarrant visited him in his dressing room and told him: "Congratulations, fantastic."

He returned later, "once recording for the night had been finished", to spend a little more time with him and his wife.

Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, asked: "So far as the atmosphere then was concerned, did you detect anything untoward?"

Mr Tarrant: "Not from them. No, not at all. They seemed as normal as people who had just won £1 million would be in that situation. They did seem fine."

The crown has claimed that Whittock used a system of coughing to alert the major to the correct answers.

Wearing a charcoal grey suit and a buttoned-up, red polo shirt, Mr Tarrant was asked whether he noticed any coughing during the major's appearance.

"Not specifically because there is just so much going on at the time, loud applause ... extraordinary behaviour, exciting behaviour, very hard to follow behaviour.

"When you get to that sort of money, I am very focused, there was an awful lot going on," he told the prosecutor.

Mr Tarrant was asked by Sonia Woodley QC, for Ingram, about coughing during the recording.

"Do you remember one of the contestants coughing quite a lot?" Ms Woodley asked.

"Not at all, I don't remember," he replied.

Mr Tarrant was then asked about general coughing in the audience and said he did not remember it although it was possible there had been some them during the recording.

Mr Tarrant described the atmosphere in the studio when Ingram won the £1 million as "huge" with much cheering and applause.

Ms Woodley: "And you hugged Mr Ingram?"

Mr Tarrant laughed: "Yes, in a manly way."

Ms Woodley: "And your attitude was what a fantastic performance. You were delighted for him and it made great television."

Mr Tarrant: "Absolutely true."

Asked about what the contestants focused on during the filming, Mr Tarrant said their attention was drawn to the screen in front of them and his eyes and the questions he was asking.

Ms Woodley said that in his statement to police Mr Tarrant had said when he visited the couple in their dressing room they seemed normal.

The court heard on Tuesday that college lecturer Tecwen Whittock rapidly aroused suspicions with a bout of systematic coughing.

Studio floor manager Philip Davies said: "There is always coughing during recording, but it is generally irregular and not systematic.''

Whittock's apparent difficulty definitely fell into the latter category, he insisted. "It was not frequent as in uncontrolled coughing, which is why I was suspicious. There was no attempt to stifle it, which again was unusual,'' he added.

The prosecution claimed Whittock, one of the show's fastest finger first contestants, sitting just 10ft from the Royal Engineers officer, used 19 strategic coughs to help Ingram cope with the increasingly difficult questions.

Mr Davies, who was giving evidence on the third day of what is expected to be a four-week trial, told the eight-woman, four-man jury that there had been problems on each of the two days Ingram was in the hot seat.

On the first day, September 9, he was told by Steve Springford, head of production for Celador, which makes the popular ITV1 programme at Elstree studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, that somebody might be using a telephone in the VIP area.

About the same time, a sound supervisor said he believed mobile telephone signals were interfering with equipment. As a result, the floor manager decided to ask the audience again to make sure mobiles were switched off.

The court has heard one of Diana Ingram's brothers, Marcus Powell, had twice been spotted with a phone clamped to his ear during recording.

Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, said the Ingrams may have considered using a vibrating pager ploy to help him cheat his way to the £1 million before deciding that a system of coded coughing offered a better chance.

He added that tests had shown an open telephone line in the VIP area could have been used to transmit the questions to someone else.

Mr Davies told the jury the second problem to arise while Ingram was taking part in the programme occurred on September 10.

He said that as soon as the coughing came to his notice, he decided to find out who was responsible. "The loudest coughing was coming from Tecwen in seat number three,'' he claimed.

"He was talking to the person to his left on the occasions when I was observing him, and then he would turn towards the set and the hot seat to cough.''

David Alburny, QC for Whittock, then asked Mr Davies if his client's coughing had been persistent. "Only in that it was persistent in a controlled way,'' he replied.

Researcher Lisa Telford told the court that Ingram's initial excitement at winning the £1 million top prize rapidly disappeared after returning to his dressing room.

In the ten minutes it took her to get a glass of wine for his wife and a pint of bitter and a cigar for him, the atmosphere in the couple's dressing room had changed. She first heard a window being slammed shut and then raised voices from inside.

"They were raised in argument," Ms Telford explained. "I saw Mrs Ingram was pale, shaking. I then asked Mr Ingram if he would like me to light his cigar and he asked me to leave. He was agitated.''

Sonia Woodley, QC for Ingram, asked her: "I suggest they weren't arguing at all and when you went back into the room, they were much as they were before, shocked and excited.''

Ms Telford said: "They weren't excited at this point.''

How the case has gone so far

Ingram was politely surprised when told the top prize cheque he won on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? had been stopped, the court heard.

The news, delivered in a telephone call the day before Charles Ingram was due to bank the seven-figure fortune, followed the discovery of "irregularities" during his appearance in the popular programme's hot seat.

Despite the bombshell, the Royal Engineers officer reacted very calmly.

Paul Smith, managing director of Celador productions, which makes the programme, told the court: "I told him that his cheque had been stopped pending an investigation into his appearance on the show. I said there had been irregularities but I did not suggest they related directly to him.

"He was collected, very calm and very polite generally.''

The trial was restarted after a juror fell ill. The development came just before the first prosecution witness was due to give evidence.

Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, began his opening with an apology to the new jury.

He said: "Ten of you, I'm aware, have already heard what I am about to say. To the ten of you, I can only say what the teacher says before they administer a punishment: 'this is going to hurt me as much as it hurts you'.''

The court heard Ingram appeared very tense and unhappy minutes after winning the top prize, the court was told.

At one point he turned on a researcher who tried to lighten the atmosphere in his dressing room, it was claimed.

"He ... raised his arms up in the air and said 'don't start, I have got things to do. You don't understand'," claimed Eve Winstanley. "Then he told me to 'get out'.

"Mr Ingram then moved towards me, which indicated to me that he wanted me to leave the room. So I did," she added.

Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, asked Ms Winstanley: "How did you feel about the way Mr Ingram had spoken to you?"

"I was shocked really," she replied. "I had never been spoken to by a contestant like that before."

Ms Winstanleysaid she had first met Ingram and his wife, who was a former £32,000 winner on the popular ITV programme, the day before he became the show's third millionaire.

Celador's associate producer Linda Rogers told the jury that after Ingram had turned up for his first appearance on the show, she had spotted his wife in the dressing room corridor looking anxious.

Mrs Ingram then turned to her and said her brother was at the security gatehouse, but was not being allowed into the studio.

"She asked me to do something about it. I passed the request on to the production co-ordinator,'' she said.

Nigel Norman, a security guard for Celador, told how Mrs Ingram's brother, Marcus Powell, became annoyed when he was not allowed into the studios some hours before recording was due to take place.

Mr Norman said: "He (Mr Powell) said that he had got permission to see the Ingrams and so I telephoned a member of staff. She gave me short shrift and said I could not let him in.''

He came back again later and was eventually let into the studio.

Once Mr Powell got into the studio, Mr Norman said he was asked by a member of staff to keep an eye on him.

Mr Norman said he saw Mr Powell look at the screen of his phone for a few seconds before putting it back into his pocket.

Asked what happened when he questioned Mr Powell as to whether the phone was on, Mr Norman replied: "He looked up at me and showed me his telephone and said 'It is switched off'.''

Asked how the Ingrams were after the million-pound victory, Mr Norman said: "They were quiet.''

Referring to a moment when he was near their dressing room, Mr Norman added: "At one point Diana Ingram raised her voice and Charles Ingram told her 'shut up'.''

The case continues.