2020-04-06_Daily_Express

Daily Express Monday, April 6, 2020 29

By Alan Jones

By Paul Jeeves

By Steph Spyro

Grateful

Enduring

Pictures: SWNS

A SET of special stamps

goes on sale tomorrow to

mark the 250th

anniversary of the birth

of renowned poet

William Wordsworth.

The stamps also

celebrate other major

romantic poets from the

early 19th century:

William Blake, John

Keats, Lord Byron,

Samuel Taylor Coleridge,

Mary Robinson, Percy

Bysshe Shelley, Walter

Scott, John Clare and

Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

Each of the 10 stamps

includes an extract from

one of their most popular

and enduring works,

along with a striking

monochrome design

reflecting the theme of

the poem.

Royal Mail spokesman

Philip Parker explained:

“The romantic poets

composed some of the

most loved poetry of

all time. Our new

collection of stamps

celebrates the genius of

their imaginations.”

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of water and sludge. I let it dry

out for a couple of days in the

hotel room.

“We brought the camera home

and took the memory card out. It

was covered in muck so I had to do

a little bit of soldering. Amazingly,

all the photos were fine.

“I was really happy. We would

have been devastated if we’d

lost our photos.”

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WHO Wants To Be A Millionaire? was
duped out of at least £5million by
quiz cheats, TV bosses have revealed.
It is claimed that a syndicate bagged
at least 10 per cent of the £50million
prize money paid out between 2002
and 2007.
The gang infiltrated the award-
winning ITV show by putting forward
their members with the answers.
Contestants applying to be on the
show would pay a fee of around
£500 and would then be given
details of the questions that research-
ers used to select who would make it
on to television.
If an applicant got into hot water
opposite host Chris Tarrant, they
would use the “phone a friend” life-
line to call the gang for answers.
Paul Smith, the boss of production
company Celador, realised the syndi-
cate’s methods only when those mak-
ing the TV drama Quiz began investi-
gating the “coughing major” scandal,
in which Charles Ingram allegedly
conned his way to the show’s maxi-
mum £1million jackpot.
Smith, who created the format of
the show, said: “We were naive. We

believed people would play the game

in the spirit it was intended, but

serious quizzers began to realise the

massive potential.

“What they began to do was find

ways of penetrating the system to get

into the studio by completely ignoring

the rules.”

Smith learnt the full extent of the

gang’s operation when he met with its

leader Paddy Spooner, a contestant

on the UK, Irish and Australian ver-

sions of the programme.

Playwright James Graham was

working on a series about “coughing

major” when he introduced the pair.

He said: “Paul became re-intrigued

by the story and wanted to find out

more about the syndicate.

“He was shocked to realise that £1

in every £10 he gave away went to

this cheating operation. Paul only

uncovered the truth while we were

preparing the series.”

The drama Quiz exposes how the

gang exploited “vulnerabilities” in the

show’s format.

It shows Spooner telling Smith: “It’s

not illegal what we do. There were

weaknesses. They were vulnerabilities

that you left in your own system.”

The three-part series will air on ITV

from next Monday.

Finder...Ryan, 36,
with his wife Ani

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A MARRIED couple who lost
their camera on their dream
holiday when it fell into the sea
have been reunited with their snaps
two years later.
Cassie and Simon Woods thought
their treasured photos had vanished
for ever when their Hero4 GoPro
disappeared beneath the waves of
the Caribbean Sea in April 2018.
The couple, who are both vets,
were kayaking at the time and the
waterproof camera toppled off
Cassie’s head when their boat was
struck by a big wave.
But 18 months later the rusty
gadget was found by another
British holidaymaker, Ryan
Friday-Swann, 36, when he was
snorkelling off the Dominican
Republic during his honeymoon.

He dried out the camera and
soldered together broken parts of
the memory stick before putting the
snaps on a lost-and-found Facebook
page last month.
A very grateful Cassie, 34, said:
“A friend sent me the link to the
post with our photos and I saw
them and I thought, ‘that can’t be
true’. It is just amazing.”
She and Simon, 37, of Shropshire,
had told hotel staff about the
camera just in case it washed up on
the coast.
Then civil servant Ryan, who
lives in Northern Ireland with his
wife Ani, was holidaying in the
resort of Punta Canta last
September when he spotted it.
He said: “We opened up
the casing and it was full

‘Lost’

pic...

Simon

and

Cassie

Trusty if

rusty...the

Woods’

Hero4

GoPro

camera

Duped...Paddy

Spooner, left, wins

£250,000 on the

show hosted by

Chris Tarrant