(210) Keeping it in the family

In early August 2004 a nurse from Scotland won the highest ever prize offered on ITV´s The Vault quiz show: £1,000,000.
To do that she had to successfully answer six questions down a telephone line - the answers to two of those having already been given earlier in the show.

At the quizzing.co.uk site certain voices were raised suggesting that some of the big TV quiz shows were deliberately excluding some applicants. I did not believe that for an instant, and noted, for those who were determined to see conspiracy everywhere, that the first winner of the million on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Judith Keppel, was married to a man who had written comedy scripts for Jasper Carrot, and Carrot is a director of the company that made WWTBAM?

On June 16th 2004, I had chipped in at a thread at the quizzing.co.uk site -

Posted by PLASKETT More re innocence and coincidence

There seems to be some disagreement about this.
... ... ...The Peerage seems to think them still man and wife - ... ... ...
And at Worldroots she is depicted as a descendant of Mary Tudor, and still married to Shand -
Descendants of Mary Tudor, Princess of England(gen 16-1 to 16-69 of 19 generations) XVI-6 (XV-5-3)
1 Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel Born 18 August 1942
Married (1) 2 April 1964 Diss.1980 Desmond Leon Corcoran
Married (2) 1985 Neil H. Shand Children, Generation XVII-5
... ... ...
Genealogy expert, Leo van de Pas, observes -
Judith's grandfather is the first cousin of Sonia Keppel and this makes Judith and Camilla 3rd cousins. Judith (and Camilla) are descendants of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond an illegitimate son of King Charles II and they are definitely descendants of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. In the latest Burke's Peerage and Judith Keppel married (1) Desmond Corcoran and they have three children and then they divorced. Judith then married Neil H. Shand but seems to go about with her maiden name.
Shand? You will say. Yes, that is Camilla's maiden name, perhaps Neil Shand is related to her as well. ... ... ...
Leo van de Pas

So then, for those who never tire of seeing smoke and conspiracy in who gets on or succeeds or is destroyed by UK TV Game Shows -

a) The first winner was ... married to a script writer for current Celador Director, Jasper Carrott.
The gentleman´s name is Shand

b) She is a direct descendant of the royal mistress, Keppel.

c) She is a cousin of Camilla Parker-Bowles (and could pass for her sister).

d) Parker Bowles had the maiden name Shand. van der Pas speculates that she may be related to Neil Shand.

e) Diana Spencer´s mother took the married name of Shand Kydd.

f) Although I am not definitely sold that the death of Lady Diana was suspicious, I am also far from satisfied that it was not, and welcome the official inquiry into her death in FRANCE.

g) Two contestants destroyed by winning the top prize on Millionaire (but who, in my opinion, were innocent and treated dreadfully by Celador) were CHARLES and DIANA.

h) Mrs Keppel was only able to answer the One Million Pound question:
"Which of these kings was married to Eleanor of Acquitaine?"
because she had taken a holiday in FRANCE that summer and one day " ...whilst mooching around in a town ..." had wandered into a churchyard where she spotted Eleanor of Acquitaine´s TOMB.

i) Judith Keppel (along with a few other people) is a direct descendant of Eleanor of Acquitaine.
So, you see, it´s all rigged.

Then, on August 8th 2004, I noted something else, and promptly commented on it at the same thread -

Posted by PLASKETT Another Millionaire winner called Mrs Shand
I only learn, via the post before this, that the winner of the million on The Vault was called Mrs Shand.
So, if any of you STILL do NOT think it is ALL RIGGED, consider this which I posted on page 10 of this thread - (The above list)

ANOTHER Mrs Shand the first winner of One Million Pounds on an ITV Quiz Show...?¿


More info re Judith´s name -

Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel was born on 18 August 1942.1 She is the daughter of Lt.-Cdr.Hon. Walter Arnold Crispin Keppel and Aline Lucy Harington.1 Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel married, firstly, Desmond Leon Corcoran on 2 April 1964.1
Her married name became Corcoran. Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel and Desmond Leon Corcoran were divorced in 1980.1
From 1985, her married name became Shand. Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel married, secondly, Neil H. Shand in 1985.

I could also note that, after she won the million, on two subsequent occasions the now illustrious Judith Keppel was used as a Phone-A-Friend on special Celebrity charity editions of WWTBAM?.
In each instance she faced questions related to Royals and their women.

One was concerning the title of Prince Consort and the other was "Who starred opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s film The Prince and the Showgirl?"
"Laurence Olivier", she correctly answered, before the four options had been listed.

Judith is a direct descendant, as Leo van der Pas observes, not only of Eleanor of Acquitaine but also of her English husband, Henry The Second.
... ... ... ... ... ...
As a final codicil, I might add that on the evening of February 5th 2009 I consulted the recent Statcounter hits for this Blog and saw two of note. The first was on February 4th and from somebody in the Californian town of Corcoran.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corcoran,_California

In the second, the following day, an inquirer in Edinburgh had sought Desmond Leon Corcoran (Judith´s first husband).

The 23 hour length of the February 4th hit means that there would have been an overlap and both the viewer of Corcoran and the one looking for Corcoran would have been viewing this Blog simultaneously at 19:44:34 February 5th 2009.

Viz;

4th February 2009 21:15:37
22 hours 59 mins 32 secs
Location:
Hostname:
Referring URL: 0
Corcoran California United States
ahs-165.rsusd.k12.ca.us (206.78.81.165) [Label IP Address]
james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html
images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkg66E94pHmQ1tbcfSBhrRqJiW0V3hMrSboIWMOn8gvK4580v3_yRCTTN2BQw1xTVx2nfQDBpbKlXgLNEIFSlhuxi5P_q48lqPEJf203odmYEDZAGGRg941zKXx-hSZbDJeuBqTA/s400/chess3.JPG&imgrefurl=http://james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html&usg=__AHDaD31ZKbx_1tCWqL1JSn0kgqk=&h=333
magnify visitor Number of Entries:


Entry Page Time:
5th February 2009 19:44:34
1 second
Location:
Referring URL: 0

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=Desmond Leon Corcoran
IP Address 78.151.213.201 [Label IP Address]
United Kingdom
Edinburgh

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