Michael Sheen’s fantastic performance as Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant in ITV minisseries Quiz has earned him another nomination, this time as best actor at this year’s BAFTA Cymru Awards, his third in the awards so far – he has been nominated for his performances in The Gospel of Us, which he won, and in Apostle. Check out the nominees:
Actor
Callum Scott Howells – It’s A Sin – Red Production Company / Channel 4
Keith Allen – The Pembrokeshire Murders – World Productions in association with Severn Screen / ITV
Mark Lewin Jones – Gangs of London – Pulse Films, SISTER / Sky Atlantic
Michael Sheen – Quiz – Left Bank Pictures / ITV
The 30th annual British Academy Cymru Awards will take place on October 24 at 7 PM GMT. The digital ceremony will be streamed across BAFTA’s social channels.
Congratulation, Michael, and good luck!
The nominations for the Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards and British Academy Television Craft Awards have been announced today (April 28). Michael Sheen recieved his third nomination in the BAFTA TV as the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant in Quiz. The three-part series also got a nod in the editing category. Check out the nominees below:
Supporting Actor
Kunal Nayyar – Criminal: UK – Idiotlamp Productions/Netflix
Malachi Kirby – Small Axe – Turbine Studios, Lammas Park/BBC One – WINNER
Michael Sheen – Quiz – Left Bank Pictures/ITV
Micheal Ward – Small Axe – Turbine Studios, Lammas Park/BBC One
Rupert Everett – Adult Material – Fifty Fathoms Productions/Channel 4
Tobias Menzies – The Crown – Left Bank Pictures, Sony Pictures Television/NetflixEditing – Fiction
Chris Dickens, Steve McQueen – Small Axe – Turbine Studios, Lammas Park/BBC One
Editing Team – I May Destroy You – Various Artists, FALKNA/BBC One – WINNERS
Nathan Nugent – Normal People (episode 5) – Element Pictures/BBC Three
Pia Di Ciaula – Quiz – Left Bank Pictures/ITV
The winners of the Television Craft Awards and the Virgin Media BAFTAs will be announced on Monday May 24 and Sunday June 6, respectively. This post will be updated once the winners are out.
Good luck to Michael Sheen and team Quiz!
The nominees of the Broadcast Awards 2021 have been announced today (April 15) and two productions starring Michael Sheen made it to the shortlist: Quiz recieved a nod as Best Drama Series, whilst Staged season one was nominated as Best Lockdown Programme – Entertainment, Comedy and Scripted. See the nominees below:
Best Drama Series or Serial
Des
I Hate Suzie
I May Destroy You – WINNER
Normal People
Quiz
The End of the F**king WorldBest Lockdown Programme – Entertainment, Comedy and Scripted
A League of Their Own
Home Alone with Joel Dommet
Isolation Stories
Staged
The Ragnanation – WINNER
Unsaid Stories
The winners will be announced on May 27 at a virtual ceremony. You can register here to watch it.
Good luck to everyone involved in both shows!
The nominations for the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2021 have been announced this morning. Quiz recieved three nods: Best Drama 1-4 Episodes, Best Actor (Matthew Macfadyen), and Best Writer (James Grahan), while the first season of Staged was nominated for Best Comedy and Best Actor (David Tennant). See the nominees below:
Best Comedy
Friday Night Dinner, Series 6 (Big Talk Productions for Channel 4)
Inside No. 9, Series 5 (BBC Studios for BBC Two)
Staged, Series 1 (Infinity Hill/ GCB Films for BBC One) – WINNER
This Country, Series 3 (BBC Studios for BBC Three)
The Trip, Series 4 (Greece) (Revolution Films for Sky One)Best Actor
Shaun Parkes (Mangrove, Small Axe)
Matthew Macfadyen (Quiz)
Paul Mescal (Normal People)
David Tennant (Des/Staged) – WINNERBest Writer
James Graham (Quiz)
Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You) – WINNER
Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton (Inside No. 9)
Steve McQueen, Courttia Newland, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Alastair Siddons (Small Axe)Best Drama Series 1-4 episodes
Des (New Pictures for ITV)
Quiz (Left Bank Pictures for ITV and AMC) – WINNER
Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse (Hartswood Films for Sky One)
The Salisbury Poisonings (Dancing Ledge Productions for BBC One)
This year the award ceremony will be online and will take place on Friday March 12. The winners will be announced and will accept their awards via Twitter.
Congratulations to everyone involved in both productions!
Yesterday the SAG-AFTRA Foundation released a Q&A session with Michael Sheen recorded virtually in which he discussed the three-part drama Quiz, currently on air on AMC. Watch the full interview below:
Also, check out screencaptures from the interview on our photo gallery:
Michael talks about the scandal, doing the minisseries, playing Chris Tarrant, and more:
Ler maisMichael Sheen, who plays Chris Tarrant on Quiz, talks about his getting a unique perspective on the Ingrams’ guilt and what it was like playing British TV legend Tarrant.
Q: Did you remember this scandal?
A: In Britain, I think I was probably similar to most people here who remembered it because it was such a big deal at the time, and the tabloid newspapers were all over it, and it was such a huge show… I think, like most people, I seem to remember watching the episodes when they came out. But they never did come out. They’ve never been shown, so the whole of the country pretty much has misremembered watching the actual episode. What actually came out was the documentary that ITV put out, which is very sort of ITV’s agenda, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?‘s agenda, so very kind of biased towards their guilt — and then that’s connected to the other part, which is my memory of them before I read the scripts for this where I had no question that they were guilty. I just totally remembered that it was this terrible thing and they did this thing and they got done for it and all that. So that’s what I remembered before I read the scripts.
Q: What drew you to the show?
A: How I came to the project was through [Executive Producer] Stephen Frears. Stephen called me. I was in New York and he was coming to New York and he said, “Let’s go and have dinner. Something I want to talk to you about.” And so we went out for dinner, and he told me that he was doing this project and would I think about playing the part… He’s probably my favorite director to work with and he’s had such a huge effect on my life. The first film I ever did was with Stephen, a film called Mary Reilly many years ago with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich… so obviously if Stephen says he wants me to do something, I’m there. But also in this case it was written by James Graham, who I’d been working with for a little while on another project. So I know James and I’m a big fan of his work and his writing, and I was aware that it had been a play before, which I didn’t see but I had been aware of him. I knew it was a very popular play. It had been a big success. So I was already predisposed to liking it, so Stephen said, “Right, I’ll get the scripts sent to you.”
So before the scripts got to me, I watched that documentary again, and this was before I knew what line the script would take, so I just watched the documentary, thinking they were guilty because that was my memory. And the documentary just seemed so over the top trying to make out they were guilty. By the end of it, I was like, “There’s something not right about this.” And then the script came and I read the scripts, and the scripts are not about trying to say they’re innocent, but they’re certainly trying to say there’s more to this story than people would like to believe, so my instincts from watching the documentary were sort of borne out by the scripts. And I just remember reading all three episodes just straight through. They worked so brilliantly on the page… And so I said straightaway, “Absolutely, I want to do this.”
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)
Ler maisBut 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.
Michael discusses Quiz, Good Omens, Prodigal Son, fans and being a father for the second time at 50. Read more:
Ler maisLOS ANGELES—Michael Sheen has played Prime Minister Tony Blair, TV broadcaster icon David Frost and renowned human sexuality researcher William Masters, but the role he enjoys reprising these days is that of a father.
It has been 20 years since Michael became a first-time dad when he and Kate Beckinsale had Lily Mo Beckinsale-Sheen. Last September, the English actor returned to playing one of his favorite roles—a father—to Lyra, his daughter with Swedish actress Anna Lundberg.
“It’s been 20 years since I did this,” Michael confirmed in a video call about becoming a dad again at age 51.
“To be a new dad with a little baby in lockdown as well is a very particular experience,” said the Golden Globe nominee for the TV drama series, “Masters of Sex.” “It’s been great because it means that her routine comes first. I know a lot of people have been saying since the lockdown that routine is such an important thing because otherwise, you end up living in your pajamas all day, not doing anything. But, of course, she has a routine that has to be stood by, so she dictates what happens in the day.
The trio will talk about the miniseries before the premiere on AMC. Get notified:
AMC’s upcoming three-part drama QUIZ is directed by the globally renowned Stephen Frears (A Very English Scandal, Florence Foster Jenkins, Philomena, The Queen) and written by playwright James Graham (Brexit: An Uncivil War, Ink, This House (Prodigal Son). Join series stars Sian Clifford (Fleabag), Matthew Macfadyen, and Michael Sheen as they speak with Entertainment Weekly’s Ruth Kinane to discuss the fictional recreation of how Major Charles Ingram (Matthew Macfadyen), his wife Diana (Sian Clifford) and an accomplice were accused of cheating their way to a million pounds on what was the most popular game show hosted by Chris Tarrant (Michael Sheen) on earth in 2001 and the media storm that took place during the trial.
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Actors Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford and writer James Graham will also attend the event on May 27. Learn more:
The Variety Streaming Room will host an exclusive series premiere screening presented by AMC of the first episode from upcoming series, Quiz, on May 27 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET. Immediately following the show, Variety’s Michael Schneider will conduct a Q&A with stars Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”), Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) and Michael Sheen (“Good Omens”) along with writer/executive producer James Graham.
Quiz chronicles the infamous scandal of Charles Ingram, a contestant on the ITV quiz show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” While his first night on the show is a disaster, the second night, the unsuspecting Charles Ingram, played by Matthew Macfadyen, has a brand-new strategy and successfully moves all the way up the question ladder. Eventually, an increasingly suspicious production team launches an investigation that leads them to an incriminating pattern of coughs in the studio audience. Charged with fraud and persecuted by the public and press, Charles, his wife Diana and the alleged cougher head to court. At first it seems the trial is an easy decision, but as the case for the defense gets underway, the jury learns there is far more to the story than they realize.
AMC is home to some of the most popular and acclaimed programs on television. AMC was the first basic cable network to ever win the Emmy Award for outstanding drama series with “Mad Men” in 2008, which then went on to win the coveted award four years in a row, before “Breaking Bad” won it in 2013 and 2014. The network’s series “The Walking Dead” is the highest-rated series in cable history.
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