'Quiz' Episode 2: Charles Ingram wins a million pounds, fans say it was 'blatantly obvious' that he cheated
'Quiz' captures the story behind the biggest game-show scandal in the early 2000s. The tale is as follows: Charles Ingram (portrayed by Michael Macfadyen on the show) won a million pounds on the popular quiz show, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' with the help of wife Diana (Sian Clifford) and an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock (Michael Jibson). It was the famous 'coughing' scandal that rocked the UK at the time, and the court cases ensued for quite a while, with the Ingrams maintaining firmly that they were innocent.
In the show, a family pastime grows into an obsession, when Diana's brother Adrian realizes that he is heavily in debt. He makes it to the show finally, but can only walk away with 32,000 pounds. Diana makes it to the Hot Seat as well, but is unable to win much. Finally, she pushes her disinterested husband on the show. With a signal of a cough from the audience, Charles is apparently able to guess the right answer and win a million pounds. However, the creators realize something is severely amiss and can't seem to figure out exactly how to prove it. Nevertheless, in the second episode, they tell Charles that his cash cannot be cashed and the episode ends with him and his wife being placed under arrest.
Fans have a lot to say about the show. One said it was 'an obvious cheating ploy'. "Pretty amusing that the UK had this idiot with his obvious cheating ploy, and the US had John Carpenter was was a straight up baller on the final question #Quiz #QuizAMC," they wrote.
"If this is even remotely accurate of how it went down, it was blatantly obvious he was cheating #QuizAMC," another wrote.
Others had conflicting opinions about the quality of the show itself. "@AMC_TV sorry but British #Quiz isn't that great so far. Some scripting hard to believe. Over-directed. Not sure why the 3 hours are stretched over 3 weeks--that's not a series, it's just a long movie. #AMC needs to learn that dull & talky isn't the same as classy & sophisticated," a fan wrote.
However, the rest are full of praise for the show and said it 'serves as the perfect escape' from the gloomy global scenario. Others called it 'amazing'.
'Quiz' is an AMC mini-series that airs on Sunday nights at 10 pm.