ORAC,
Just to try and answer some of your questions, and I am only going on what was on the Bashir documentary and the screening on ITV2 of the "unedited" program.
Whittock did not know all the answers, he was asking a fellow contestant what the answers were. This could be heard on another soundtrack.
Although he failed on his own attempt in the hot seat, perhaps the thought that he had a major share of £1M was distracting him slightly?
It was also interesting to hear the coughing during the "unedited" version of the program; yes there were other coughs, but nothing that would have confused the majors situation with regard to the correct answers.
Ingram might have succeeded with the scam if he had quit at say £125k, but it really was laughably incompetant that some of the questions he needed 3-4 confirmation coughs, never mind the outrageous last minute changes of mind.