Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Sian Clifford, Mark Bonnar, Helen McCrory, Michael Sheen, Aisling Bea, Elliot Levey, Risteard Cooper, Trystan Gravelle, Michael Jibson, Jasmyn Banks, Seraphina Beh, Matt Butcher, Paul Bazely, Andrew Leung, Jerry Killick, Matt Blair, Mark Aaron Byrne, Scott Handy, Keir Charles, William Chubb, Dean Nolan, Maggie Service, Geoffrey McGivern, Martin Trenaman, Nicholas Woodeson, Michael Elwyn, Paul Hunter, Sarah Woodward.
At one time or another we have all surely tried our hand at a pub quiz, the camaraderie of the team taking on others in a display of general knowledge, mental stimulation in the face of alcohol induced gamesmanship. It is this arena that we have seen people use any means they can to gain an advantage, to win and gain the prize on offer, whilst others will call them out for cheating, even those who triumph by fair means will have eyebrows raised in their direction and sarcastic names thrown at them. The reason for this sense of injustice will always come down to money, the driving system of all kinds of jealousy and insecurity.
The larger the amount on offer in the jackpot, the more people will consider the only way to win it is to cheat. The age old question of how much is your honour worth plays its hand, would you steal a hundred pounds off someone if you feel could get away with it, you would like to think that the vast majority of people wouldn’t dare attempt such a moment of personal shame, but for a million pounds, arguably we have all wondered what it would take to sell our soul.
The television quiz has never really seen anything as audacious a spectacle as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the popular quiz brought to the screens by Celador and I.T.V. and it changed, revolutionised even, the format of the nature of quizzing. Filled with drama, the spotlight, the fear, the humiliation if you got an easy question wrong, the possible elation, the huge jackpot, what was not to like, and once you have a format, you have people working their minds to finding ways to cheat the system.
It is in the three-part drama, Quiz, that modern television viewers are presented with facts and speculative answers in how such a move was made to either gain an advantage, or to cheat a company out of a million pounds.
Most will remember the case of Major Charles Ingram, his smiling face pictured with the versatile and charming Chris Tarrant as the glitter came down upon them, a million pounds richer, television history ensured. Some will be definite in their judgement of whether he, his wife and Tecwen Whittock were, as found by a jury, guilty. Quiz though casts some doubt on this verdict, and whether the makers mean to do so, the average viewer will no doubt come away from having watched this incredible drama with some suspicion, and perhaps some admiration for at least person involved in the whole sordid affair.
Whilst Matthew Macfadyen is cast superbly in the role of the Major, and with wonderful support from the likes of Helen McCrory, Mark Bonnar, Elliot Levey and Sian Clifford, it is to the immense talent of Michael Sheen that the uncanny portrayal of Chris Tarrant in the hot seat and in the courtroom that the show has its absolute gravitas. One of the most endearing men of his time being played to absolute perfection by the leading character actor of the day just simply takes your breath away.
In the end only three people really know the true story of what happened on that fateful night in the studio, and Quiz does an excellent job of guiding the story carefully between calm and stormy waters with genuine drama at the wheel. Captivating, questioning, brilliant. Quiz is an examination not just of the honour of those at the very heart of the matter, but of ourselves, of who we see as the villain and the injured party.
Ian D. Hall