STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
In September 2001, the TV gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was at the height of its peak, raking in millions of viewers and one of the top programmes on the schedule. It was at this time when Army Major Charles Ingram (Matthew Macfadyen) appeared as a contestant, after his wife Diana (Sian Clifford) had already been on and won £32,000, and became one of only two people to win the million pound jackpot. However, his behaviour on the show sparked suspicion from the producers, and him and his wife, along with accomplice Tecwen Whittock (Michael Jibson) were taken to court on suspicion of cheating.
At a time when everyone is suspicious of those around them who cough, it seems darkly apt that ITV have delivered this dramatization of one of the most unbelievable episodes in its history. It undoubtedly was ripe with dramatic potential, another one of those 'you couldn't make it up' things, and what better channel to be behind it than the one of which it all happened? Despite Ingram's protestations of innocence, he's always been more than happy to milk his notoriety, appearing in various interviews and even appearing in Z list reality TV shows, so this is another thing he really can't complain about.
In a time when streaming services such as Netflix are known for making excessive thirteen or so episode series, terrestrial stations like ITV are still sticking with a restrictive three or so, as is the case here. With this in mind, the first episode would have done well to not spend so much time elaborating on the history of the nation's obsession with the gameshow and how ITV needed to come up with an exciting brand new format, and focused on how the machinations of the plan came together. Performances wise, Sheen always does his homework on the real life roles he plays, and captures Tarrant's mannerisms down to a tee, while fellow big name star Macfadyen also inhibits the part of the bumbling, mild mannered major really well.
If this guy had been a little less over zealous, there's a chance he could have got away with what could still have been quite a lot of money, but his poor performance on the show and lack of confidence just gave the game away, and his name became synonymous with one of the most audacious things ever carried out on live TV. It's fitting that ITV have made an imperfect but still highly worthwhile production of an incident its own channel will always be famous for. ***
In September 2001, the TV gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was at the height of its peak, raking in millions of viewers and one of the top programmes on the schedule. It was at this time when Army Major Charles Ingram (Matthew Macfadyen) appeared as a contestant, after his wife Diana (Sian Clifford) had already been on and won £32,000, and became one of only two people to win the million pound jackpot. However, his behaviour on the show sparked suspicion from the producers, and him and his wife, along with accomplice Tecwen Whittock (Michael Jibson) were taken to court on suspicion of cheating.
At a time when everyone is suspicious of those around them who cough, it seems darkly apt that ITV have delivered this dramatization of one of the most unbelievable episodes in its history. It undoubtedly was ripe with dramatic potential, another one of those 'you couldn't make it up' things, and what better channel to be behind it than the one of which it all happened? Despite Ingram's protestations of innocence, he's always been more than happy to milk his notoriety, appearing in various interviews and even appearing in Z list reality TV shows, so this is another thing he really can't complain about.
In a time when streaming services such as Netflix are known for making excessive thirteen or so episode series, terrestrial stations like ITV are still sticking with a restrictive three or so, as is the case here. With this in mind, the first episode would have done well to not spend so much time elaborating on the history of the nation's obsession with the gameshow and how ITV needed to come up with an exciting brand new format, and focused on how the machinations of the plan came together. Performances wise, Sheen always does his homework on the real life roles he plays, and captures Tarrant's mannerisms down to a tee, while fellow big name star Macfadyen also inhibits the part of the bumbling, mild mannered major really well.
If this guy had been a little less over zealous, there's a chance he could have got away with what could still have been quite a lot of money, but his poor performance on the show and lack of confidence just gave the game away, and his name became synonymous with one of the most audacious things ever carried out on live TV. It's fitting that ITV have made an imperfect but still highly worthwhile production of an incident its own channel will always be famous for. ***