Quiz is coming to AMC on Sunday, May 31 and is already Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with a score 96% at its Tomatometer and a critic consensus that reads: “With clever writing, a slick production, and a pitch perfect Michael Sheen, Quiz crafts a captivating snapshot of a wild scandal that will keep viewers on their toes.”
Read what critics are saying about the three-part drama and Michael’s performance:
However, the most eye-catching and ear-grabbing performance was Michael Sheen’s razzle-dazzle turn as Chris Tarrant, the quiz show’s host. Sheen combined a note-perfect impersonation with a spiky character study, underscoring a defining trait of all TV personalities: the gnashing teeth beneath the smarmy smile. Nobody emerged unscathed from Quiz, but the skewering of broadcaster-kind and their delusional vanities was its top prize.
The Times II (4/5 stars)
If Michael Sheen’s splendid impression of Chris Tarrant did not impress then, please, watch it again. Apparently Tarrant approached Sheen at an event just after he had been cast to play him and said: “You look nothing like me,” which is true, but with a blond wig and fake tan, Sheen was transformed. Close your eyes and his voice, the intonation, his little high-pitched laughs and the way he called the phone-a-friend helpers at home to say “John? Hi, THIS is CHRIS Tarrant,” were Rory Bremner good. It was almost as slick as Sheen’s Tony Blair and his Brian Clough; he didn’t have the lead role, but he kind of stole the show.
The Guardian (3/5 stars)
But grab the public imagination it did, so much so that nearly 20 years on it has been made into Quiz (ITV), a three-part drama starring Matthew Macfadyen as the major and Sian Clifford as his wife, Diana (both so far following their media portrayals at least, as hapless and Lady Macbethesque respectively), and – most eye-catchingly – Michael Sheen as a pitch perfect Chris Tarrant. If you close your eyes, it’s him. The physical resemblance is uncanny, too, but in a more complicated way – you have to go back to the original to remind yourself that the presenter really does have that plasticky a rictus grin and adjust your credulity accordingly.
First there was that eerily uncanny transformation. Michael Sheen, a Welsh man with a shock of dark curly hair and slightly wild-looking beard, didn’t just put on a wig and fake tan to look like quiz show host Chris Tarrant. He became him.
“How is Michael Sheen a better Chris Tarrant than Chris Tarrant?” tweeted some of the six million viewers who had to do a double-take.
Quiz is an entertaining, well-constructed and big-hearted romp through a story most will think they know well, with sympathetic performances by both leads, an amusing turn by Michael Sheen as Chris Tarrant, and an entertaining supporting cast of quiz fanatics.
The Herald Scotland (episode one, 4/5 stars)
Sheen was at his usual shape-shifting best as Tarrant, the ultimate smoothy chops quiz master, and I would happily listen to Bonnar reading out the manual for a washing machine.
Actual magic of course, was involved in Michael Sheen’s terrifyingly accurate impersonation of TV host Chris Tarrant. Close your eyes and you’d think it was him. Open your eyes, and you’d still think it was him, even though they don’t look at all the same. Wizardry is the only explanation.
Much of the drama plays out on the set itself, as Ingram — an army major — sits in the player’s chair opposite host Chris Tarrant (Michael Sheen, terrific as always), noodling out loud about his answers while stalling for sure sound like subtle clues from his wife and another plant in the audience.
Paste Magazine (Rating: 9.3/10)
For Britons, Quiz will surely hit differently than in the U.S. The case is more obscure here, and we aren’t as familiar with UK presenter Chris Tarrant, for example (a wonderful Michael Sheen). But we do know the show’s format, and how it worked (or seemed to), and there’s something very fun about seeing such a familiar property examined through the lens of another country’s experience with it.
AV Club (Score: B-)
That doesn’t make it boring, however. The behind-the-curtain glimpse at quiz TV’s nuts and bolts is exciting, and Michael Sheen’s riff on original host Chris Tarrant succeeds both in translating his on-camera amiability and the ways Tarrant’s life in the spotlight translated into his real-life behaviors.