By turns utterly mundane and extremely bizarre, the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? cheating scandal ironically had all the elements of perfect television.
Now, it's the subject of a three part ITV drama, Quiz, based on James Graham's hit play of the same name and directed by Stephen Frears.
Starring Matthew Macfadyen as Charles Ingram, later immortalised in headlines as the 'coughing major,' Sian Clifford as his wife Diana and Michael Sheen as quizmaster Chris Tarrant, Graham's drama aims to approach the controversy from all angles - and might just leave you questioning the Ingrams' guilty verdict.
After a whistle stop tour through Who Wants To Be A Millionaire's origin story, the first episode introduces the Ingram family, their quiz obsession - and a shady network of fellow super-fans.
ITV's Quiz featuring Michael Sheen (2020) - In pictures
Many elements of the story can seem too good to be true - a room full of top quizzers at the end of the Phone A Friend hotline? - but Graham has in fact had to use very little creative license in his script.
In this case, the truth certainly is stranger than fiction - and these are the questions you'll doubtless end up furiously Googling during Quiz's ad breaks...
Did Paul Smith put his own money on the line for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? And how did they come up with the show’s name?
Celador’s Paul Smith (played by Mark Bonnar in the TV series) first pitched the idea for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? back in 1995, but executives at ITV weren’t interested. Several years later, though, it eventually found its home at the channel.
The format itself was the brainchild of David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Stephen Knight (yes, the same Stephen Knight who’s now best known as the showrunner of Peaky Blinders) - who had worked together as producers on Chris Tarrant’s Capital Breakfast show in the '80s and came up with the concept in a wine bar in Covent Garden.
In Quiz, we see Smith ask an ITV boss to stump up some cash in order to play a rudimentary version of the game show during an initial pitch - which really happened, right down to the question about the length of the Titanic. He also made a major personal gamble on the show’s success. Calculating that the worst loss it could make would be around £1 million, Smith struck up an agreement whereby he would be liable for half of that. In a worst case scenario, he would hand over £500,000 worth of shares in Celador (belonging to him, his wife and friend Jasper Carrott).
Cash Mountain was indeed the show’s working title, before Briggs decided to swap it for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in a nod to the Cole Porter song, used in the film High Society. The scene where a technician just so happens to be whistling the tune as he sets up is Graham’s poetic license, though.
“We show a carpenter or electrician whistling on set to the classic High Society tune and I'm afraid a 50/50, true or false, that is false,” the writer told the Final Answer podcast. “That's me. I'm really sorry. That's artistic licence.”
Does Quiz use real footage of actual contestants?
One of the (real) show’s first memorable contestants was Rachel Da Costa, who wanted to win enough cash to pay for her wedding - but was foiled when her designated Phone A Friend, her dad, let her down. Quiz’s editors used archive footage of Da Costa, editing in new footage of Michael Sheen as Tarrant.
Editor Pia di Ciaula explained the painstaking process on the Final Answer podcast, which is available to listen to straight after each episode, revealing: “I had to take Chris Tarrant out, I had to replace it with Michael Sheen, which meant that I couldn’t cut where I normally would.
“So this was a major challenge. I also had 10 monitors in the control room to find material for. Chris Tarrant is in some of the wider shots.
“As a little joke, I even left in some of the dialogue from Chris Tarrant and no one noticed. They will assume it’s Michael Sheen because I planted a few of these lines.”
Did the extended Ingram family appear on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
The show appears to have become a major preoccupation for the whole family. Diana’s brother Adrian Pollock was the first to appear on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2000, reaching the £32,000 mark; she then followed in April 2001, also winning £32,000.
Before she and Charles had their separate shots at the £1 million prize, the couple also took part in Couples Millionaire in March of that year, but never made it into the contestants’ seats - one example of their quiz obsession that didn’t make it into the TV drama.
Quiz does, however, mention the book Diana was working on (which had the straightforward provisional title of Win A Million) - and the homemade Fastest Finger First device that Charles used to prepare for his TV appearance, which was mentioned in the Ingrams’ court case. And according to a gushing news report from the time of Charles’ win (before the cheating scandal hit the headlines), the family spent around £2,000 in phone charges in order to secure their slots on the show.
Was there really a shady quiz syndicate?
As you watch events play out on screen, the concept of an underground network of quizzers dedicated to gaming the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? system seems like another stroke of dramatic license.
Proving that the truth really can be stranger than fiction, though, the show’s makers have admitted that they were duped by a ‘syndicate’ of super-fans, who took at least £5 million in prize money.
Exploiting weaknesses in the show’s infrastructure - such as the fact that producers often used facts from ONS surveys in their questions - the syndicate is thought to have asked for a fee of around £500 to give aspiring contestants a ‘helping hand.’
If they made it onto the show, they could use a special number as their Phone A Friend option, which would connect them to the syndicate’s experts.
Television shows in 2020
Celador’s Smith became aware of the scheme during Quiz’s production process and even met with Paddy Spooner, who is name-checked in the series as something of a super-contestant.
“We believed people would play the game in the right spirit it was intended, but serious quizzers began to realise the massive potential,” Smith told the Mail on Sunday.
“What they began to do was find ways of penetrating the system to get into the studio completely, totally ignoring the rules.
Graham told the paper: “Paul became re-intrigued by the story and wanted to find out more about the syndicate. He was shocked to realise that one in every 10 pounds he gave away went to this cheating operation.”
Quiz continues on ITV on April 14 at 9pm. Episode 1 of Final Answer – Quiz Special, the official Who Wants To Be A Millionaire podcast is available on all podcast providers immediately after the show airs.