Before Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? became an American TV phenomenon for ABC in 1999, it had begun as a surprise smash on Britain’s ITV, where it premiered in 1998 and would run until 2014 (not counting a 2018 revival). Fans hoping to get on the show and win big prizes quickly formed underground groups, devising schemes to help one another, and a major scandal erupted in 2001, when Charles Ingram, an army officer, became the third contestant to make his way to the program’s ultimate million-pound bonanza.
But his strange behavior in answering the questions—hemming, and hawing through the possibilities before always selecting the right responses—led to suspicions of cheating among the program’s executive staff, and after inspecting footage of his appearances they concluded that Ingram had been prompted, by coughs from the studio audience—particularly his wife Diana, a quiz show fanatic, and Tecwen Whittock, a man seated among the potential future contestants. They turned their evidence over to the police, and the Ingrams and Whittock were charged with fraud; in an ensuing 2003 trial, they were found guilty, hit with stiff fines, and sentenced to suspended prison terms.
James Graham adapted his 2017 play about the scandal for this cheeky three-part mini-series, which was produced for ITV (milking its cash cow yet again) and broadcast in the U.S. on AMC. It not only skillfully recreates Charles’ appearances on the program and the course of the trial in a cunning fashion that leaves the question of the defendants’ guilt or innocence provocatively unanswered, but offers a breezily satirical view of the business of broadcast television by devoting much of the first episode to the process by which the producers hammered out the details of the show to make it most appealing to a public obsessed with showing off their knowledge of trivia and getting rich in the process.
Under the deft direction of veteran Stephen Frears, the cast plays it to the hilt. Matthew Macfadyen captures the bewildered, dithering air of Major Ingram perfectly, and Sian Clifford nicely conveys Diana’s imperiously manipulative streak. The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, with Trystan Gravelle suitably devious as Diana’s brother and Helen McCrory convincingly cutthroat as the Ingrams’ barrister. The real scene-stealer, though, is Michael Sheen, who positively oozes phony charisma as the program’s pompous host, flashing a toothy grin and a ready quip whenever the camera is on him.
On the surface, Quiz seems just a bit of well-made tabloid entertainment, but if considered more closely, it comes across as a bemused critique of the public’s infatuation with the inconsequential while matters of real importance fall by the wayside.
Extras include four brief featurettes: A Look at the Series (2 min.), Constructing the Set (2 min.), Michael Sheen is Chris Tarrant (4 min.), and Introducing Charles and Diana Morgan (5min.). Highly recommended.