MINISERIES PREMIERE: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? showed up on ABC in 1999, reviving the quiz show, offering the chance of winning a fortune on live TV, and changing the fortunes of that network in the process. But before that, Millionaire had been developed as an equally popular show in the United Kingdom. And while the U.S. version, hosted by Regis Philbin, carried on for years without scandal, the original British version, hosted by Chris Tarrant, was not so lucky. In its fourth season, in 2001, a British Army major named Charles Ingram went on the show, went all the way to the top prize, but afterwards was accused of cheating by using two co-conspirators in the TV studio to identify the proper answers by secret signals. Quiz, written by James Graham and based on his similarly named play, covers it all – the development of the show, the contestant’s rise to the hot seat, and the subsequent trial. (“Who wanted to be a millionaire?” asks the prosecutor for the Crown in his opening argument. “By God, these three certainly did!”) Graham’s approach allows viewers to serve as jurors themselves, weighing the evidence to decide whether or not Ingram cheated. That’s one reason this Quiz, which continues tomorrow and Tuesday, is so engaging. Another is the top-rate cast: the always watchable Michael Sheen plays Millionaire host Tarrant, Matthew Macfadyen from Succession plays Ingram, and Sian Clifford from Fleabag plays Ingram’s wife. Watch Quiz, and take the opportunity to use a lifeline and phone a friend. They should watch, too… For some background info on Quiz, see Mike Hughes' Open Mike.

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