First Look at Michael Sheen in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Drama Reignites Our Love for the Show

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Images have been released today of Michael Sheen in full Chris Tarrant get-up as he teases the completion of the eagerly anticipated dramatization of the events surrounding the attempted cheating on the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire back in 2001. Sheen will play Tarrant opposite Matthew Macfadyen’s Major Charles Ingram and Sian Clifford’s Diana Ingram. But what happened in the show and why do we still care about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2019?

Following a botched appearance and barely scraping by during the show’s taping on September 9, 2001, Major Charles Ingram managed to bounce back and bag the £1 million. But eagle-eyed crew and fellow contestants knew something was wrong and reviewing the footage discovered that the hapless Major had been aided by coughs from the audience. His fellow contestant Tecwen Whittock and wife Diana (who had also failed to reach the million herself) sat in the audience and coughed when Ingram read out the answers, alerting him to the one that was correct. Before the money could be processed, Ingram was accused of cheating and brought to task for the fraud on the TV show. Despite being almost twenty years old, the scandal is perfect fodder for the three-part ITV drama, Quiz, which will air in 2020. The drama will be directed by virtuoso Stephen Frears, who directed Michael Sheen as Tony Blair in 2006’s The Queen starring Helen Mirren.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire remains popular to this day in the UK. Jeremy Clarkson helmed the reboot back in 2018, with enough excitement in the digital age to keep the franchise alive. Some minor tweaks meant that the show remained true enough to the original, while acknowledging that times had changed. The first British winner – and only female winner – of the million, Judith Keppel, is now a household name as one of the quizmasters on TV show Eggheads after her win on the show in 2000. The Chase’s Mark ‘The Beast’ Labbett also appeared on the show back in 2006 before taking his seat as one of the Chasers on the ITV show. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is even available in the form of a slot game on Paddy Power, who offer a corresponding casino bonus for new players on the site who might be interested in exploring how the game show has been repurposed into a different type of game. The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire board game and book are also popular staples of most family game collections up and down the country.

The British love of scandal has never been more apparent than through the excitement generated through both the original fraud saga and the retelling two decades on. The show has remained popular through various mediums, from the games associated with it to books and board games. And now the ITV drama will help bring the scandal to life in glorious HD.