The BBC talk show is back tonight at 9pm GMT on BBC One for the first lockdown episode. Michael will be talking about Quiz from his home. Read more:
As the UK lockdown continues, all sorts of TV shows are having to get a little creative to bring entertainment to the nation, and Friday night chat show The Graham Norton Show is chief among them.
For this series, the programme is moving to a new slot – 9:00pm – and a shorter runtime as Graham interviews guests virtually from home, beginning in the first episode with singer Michael Bublé, actors Michael Sheen, Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard and musician Celeste, who’ll perform her new single.
“We can’t wait to be back on Friday nights bringing a little bit of lightness during this strange time,” Norton said in a release, before getting stuck into the usual mix of chat and games.
Ler maisThe three-part drama based on the true story of coughing Major Charles Ingram and the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? scandal starts on ITV on Monday April 13 at 9PM GMT. Read an interview Michael gave to the British channel on the minisseries:
What are your memories of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? when it first came to the screen in 1998?
I remember being really struck that a TV quiz show was on every night of the week in primetime. It was unheard of at the time. Then watching Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? and being blown away by the tension of it. It was so compelling and really groundbreaking.
In doing the research for this it was fascinating to be able to watch the experimentation they did before they got it right. The version of the show they did before they had all the tense music, the lighting and all of that. It just looked like any game show at that stage.
Apart from the £1 million on offer and the structure of how you could win it, the show was completely different and not in any way gripping. It was really interesting to see the difference the tweaks they made had and how it suddenly became a massive hit. As soon as it hit its groove it was mind-blowing.
Why did you want to be involved in Quiz?
It is an extraordinary story. It’s one of those things that has such potential. At first you think, ‘Oh really? A story about Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? Is that going to be that interesting?’ Initially you think it’s going to be a little bit flimsy, maybe. Then you realise that actually it’s a way to explore all kinds of much bigger, complicated, complex issues. That you can’t take anything for granted when it comes to how it looks on the surface.
I was drawn to Quiz because I remembered what happened. And the fact James Graham had written it and Stephen Frears was directing. You think, ‘This is going to be interesting.’ Then as I started reading the scripts you really get drawn into it. So, I hope that’s the experience for the audience watching it as well. I’m sure it will be. It’s a story about far more than just the ‘Coughing Major’. And yet it says so much about us as a nation as well in so many ways. It says a lot about television, about entertainment, about how public perceptions can be influenced by all kinds of different things. It’s a very British heist that happened.
Ler maisQuiz is scheduled to be aired on ITV on April 13, 14 and 15 at 9PM GMT. Here are some links where you can watch the minisseries live:
Choose one that works for you and enjoy the show! Don’t forget to click on this link to find out which time it begins on your timezone.
Some observations:
He also spoke to Leigh Journal about playing a TV host and the respect he has now for Tarrant. Read more below:
Michael Sheen has said he shies away from using prosthetics when playing real people because they can be distracting.
The Welsh star will next be seen playing Chris Tarrant in a series based on the infamous Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? cheating scandal.
Quiz stars Matthew Macfadyen as Major Charles Ingram and Fleabag’s Sian Clifford as his wife Diana.
Dubbed the “Coughing Major”, Ingram was found guilty along with his wife and their accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, played by Michael Jibson, of cheating their way to the top prize in 2001.
The trio maintained their innocence but were convicted of deception following a high-profile 2003 trial.
Describing turning into Tarrant for the role, Sheen, who has famously played Tony Blair, David Frost and Brian Clough, said: “You wear a bald cap and then put the wig on top of it, so it’s quite hot, but that’s just brilliant work by the makeup and hair department.
Ler maisThe British channel announced today on Twitter that the three-part drama, starring Michael Sheen as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant, is airing on April 13 at 9pm.
ITV Press Centre published the three episodes synopsis. It may contain spoilers!
Ler maisThe three-part drama writer James Graham and actress Helen McCrory also speak. Production airs on ITV on April 13. Check out the new still on our gallery and read the full interview below:
Some cultural prompts become hardwired. Hear “Ask the audience”, “Phone a friend” or “50:50” and most likely your subconscious will respond with the melodramatic sound effects and swooping lights of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Read the words “coughing major” and you’ll probably think of the fidgety, stiff-shirted bumbler Charles Ingram, who went on to win the £1m prize.
Except, of course, he didn’t. Ingram had a plant called Tecwen Whittock in the audience who was coughing (the “coughing major” actually didn’t do any coughing) to tell him which of the multiple-choice answers was correct. Anyone who heard the playback could hear it clear as a bell, as Martin Bashir’s documentary A Major Fraud — made by ITV, complete with assumptive title, and watched by a remarkable 17 million viewers in 2003 — showed.
“It was a heist story about the most popular game show of all time,” says James Graham, who was so captivated by the tale that he wrote a play, Quiz, and now a three-part TV series of the same name, about the case of the coughing major. Michael Sheen, in another of his unnervingly flawless character melts, plays the show’s ringmaster, Chris Tarrant, all meringue hair and slick suits. Matthew Macfadyen is Charles Ingram, Sian Clifford his wife, Diana, Mark Bonnar plays Paul Smith, the executive producer of Millionaire, and Stephen Frears directs. But the real star of the show is the show itself — it is a startling reminder of just how big Millionaire was 20 years ago.
“It was like TV crack,” says Sheen, speaking from Wales via video link. “The thing that first struck me about it then was that it was on every night — I thought, ‘What could possibly justify that?’ It must signify something important or amazing. But a quiz show? Then, watching it, you got it immediately. When I was watching it, nothing could pull me away, and as soon as it finished I would want to watch the next one. It was addictive. I’d never seen a quiz show like that.”
Ler maisThe American newtork AMC announced at the Television Critics’ Association Press Tour last night premiere dates for new and returning series, including the three-part drama Quiz:
Quiz
Monday, May 25 – Wednesday, May 27 at 9:00 p.m. ET/8c.
A three-part drama 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, Labour of Love), Quiz tells the extraordinary and sensational story of how Charles and Diana Ingram attempted an ‘audacious heist’ on the 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 accused of cheating their way to a million pounds on what was the most popular game show on earth in 2001. The couple stood trial for conspiring by coughing during the recording to signify the correct answers to the multiple-choice questions posed to the Major by host, Chris Tarrant (Michael Sheen). Quiz is a Left Bank Pictures co-production for ITV and AMC and is distributed by Sony Pictures Television, which also owns and distributes Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? worldwide. Produced by Alice Pearse (Origin, Gregor), and executive produced by Dan Winch (A Very English Scandal, Broadchurch), William Village, James Graham, Stephen Frears and Left Bank CEO, Andy Harries.
UPDATE: AMC announced this week the new Quiz air-dates: May 31 and June 7 and 14, at 10PM (via Deadline).
Read below a long but great interview Michael gave to Collider in which he talked about Dolittle and working with Robert Downey Jr., Good Omens, Quiz, Prodigal Son, and The Way, a three-part series he is directing:
I recently sat down with Michael Sheen, who stars as the villainous Dr. Blair Müdfly in director Stephen Gaghan’s Dolittle, opening this weekend. While sitting in his trailer on the Universal backlot, Sheen and I had a wide-ranging conversation about working with Robert Downey Jr. and spending so much time looking at a tennis ball on set, the success of Amazon’s Good Omens, his idea for a Columbo episode, why he agreed to co-star on Prodigal Son, his upcoming limited series Quiz (which is about a huge Who Wants To Be A Millionaire scandal in Britian), being in an episode of The Simpsons, how he’s getting ready to direct a three-part series called The Way, and a lot more.
As you’ve seen in the trailers, Dolittle stars Downey Jr. as the famed doctor that can talk to animals. After his wife dies, Dolittle retreats behind his castle walls until being tasked to try and save the young Queen (Jessie Buckley) from a deadly illness. As he travels the world looking for a mythical island, he’s joined on his quest by a young apprentice (Harry Collett) and numerous animals that are voiced by Emma Thompson, John Cena, Tom Holland, Rami Malek, Craig Robinson, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez, Octavia Spencer, Kumail Nanjiani, and Marion Cotillard. Dolittle also stars Antonio Banderas and Jim Broadbent.
Check out what Michael Sheen had to say below.
Ler maisMichael attended the AMC panel at the 2020 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour to promote the three-part drama Quiz, to be premiered in May. He gave via satellite some details about his role as Who Wants To Be a Millionaire host Chris Tarrant. Fleabag star Sian Clifford, who plays Diana Ingram in the miniseries, and writer and executive producer James Graham were at the event.
The first image of Michael Sheen as ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ host Chris Tarrant in the three-part series Quiz was released yesterday by AMC.
Adapted from the play written by James Graham, who also wrote the likes of Brexit: An Uncivil War, Ink, This House and Labour of Love, Quiz is based on the true story of how Charles and Diana Ingram attempted an ‘audacious heist’ on the aforementioned quiz show.
The drama also stars Matthew Macfadyen as Major Charles Ingram, Sian Clifford as Diana Ingram, Mark Bonnar as Celador Television Chairman Paul Smith, Helen McCrory as Sonia Woodley QC, Michael Jibson as Tecwen Whittock and Aisling Bea as ITV Entertainment Commissioner, Claudia Rosencrantz.
Check out the new still on the photo gallery: