'Quiz' Episode 1: A retelling of how the Ingrams tried to steal a million pounds on a quiz show
The wait is over as 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' scandal drama is just a few hours away. 'Quiz', helmed by Stephen Frears and written by James Graham, is a retelling of how Charles and Diana Ingram attempted an “audacious heist” on the UK edition of quiz show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. Major Ingram (Matthew Macfadyen), his wife Diana (Sian Clifford) and an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock (Michael Jibson), who was sitting in the audience, were said to have scammed their way to a million pounds on the popular game show. The couple stood trial for conspiring by coughing during the recording to indicate the correct answers to the multiple-choice questions posed to the Major by host, Chris Tarrant (Michael Sheen).
The first episode sees television producer Paul Smith putting everything on the line to make the ITV quiz show. However, a family decides to take this a step too far. The official synopsis of the episode reads, "When television producer Paul Smith puts everything on the line to make ITV quiz show and overnight sensation 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?', one family's much loved pub-quiz hobby turns into outright obsession."
Aisling Bea plays ITVEntertainment boss Claudia Rosencrantz and 'Catastrophe' alum Mark Bonnar plays Paul Smith, Chairman of Celador Television and creator of Millionaire. Graham told Deadline earlier this year, “It’s quite easy to make TV people look pretentious and smug on TV, but that’s the trope. They just run around in suits and they’re really metropolitan and cutting and smug, and I don’t think that’s very interesting. So I tried to humanize them and make them people with vulnerabilities and doubts and uncertainties and desires like everyone else.”
Graham added that he really didn't think that anyone was 'bad' in 'Quiz'. "To this day, Paul Smith still believes that they are guilty, and he believes that very passionately. Whether it was the coughing, whether it was something else, he’s convinced that people came into the thing that he created, sold around the world, and that these people are trying to destroy that. So he feels that very keenly. And I think if you represent that honestly and sincerely, then he might be wrong, but he believes it. Similarly, the Ingrams are a normal people who go through this extraordinary story where they’re thrown into the limelight. They’re made an international laughing stock, and they’re on trial for their freedom. They may get sent to jail if they’re found guilty. You try and create three-dimensional people,” he added.
Tune into 'Quiz' on AMC at 10 pm.
