Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Scandal drama series Quiz came to an end last night.
If you want to avoid spoilers for Quiz, stop reading now.
The episode opened with Charles Ingram (Matthew Macfadyen) arriving at Mensa wanting to take their IQ test. As he filled out the application form, the snooty man at reception pretended to cough. Charles took the test and was then seen in court wearing a Mensa pin badge.
In court the floor manager gave her testimony as Sonia Woodley QC (Helen McCrory) appealed to the jury to bear in mind that memories are unreliable. She asked them to consider that Charles knew the answers, which is why he got them right.
Viewers then saw Charles and Diana (Sian Clifford) being interviewed by police. As it was explained to him that they believed he’d been changing his answers when he heard a cough, Charles laughed and tried to deflect. The police then turned their attention to Diana and criticised her book for encouraging people to bend the rules.
It was then revealed that the police had uncovered links between Diana and Tecwen Whittock (Michael Jibson) after seizing her phone records. Diana became irritated and claimed that she and Tecwen were in contact due to their love of the show.
As the Ingrams arrived home, they were met by a gaggle of press and photographers. Inside the house, Charles took Diana to task about her contact with Tecwen. When Diana said that he was a friend of Adrian’s (Trystan Gravelle), Charles started to put the links together. He lost his temper with her and told her that the perception of what she’d done was the problem, even if she was telling the truth.
Charles asked Diana if she did help him cheat and she stormed off angrily.
Once the anger had settled down, Charles and Diana met with Sonia to see if she would take their case. Sonia explained that the police and the press communicate with each other, which is why they were ambushed at home. She then told them she was happy to take the case and that she’d been looking into it already before admitting that something about the case ‘really stinks’.
Paul (Mark Bonnar) and David (Elliot Levey) talked about the widespread news coverage of the scandal before we saw Charles and Diana arriving at court, where they took a seat next to Tecwen.
The court case began as the jury was shown footage from the filming while the worker from the control room explained how the production works. The footage then saw Diana cough and Charles decide to change his answer. The second cough was also shown before Sonia took over to quiz the production worker.
Next on the stand was another contestant who testified that Tecwen coughed to help Charles get the correct answer. Sonia pulled him to pieces saying that he had never raised any complaint until the story broke in the press. When he argued that the footage showed him not clapping, he said it’s because he was angry but Sonia twisted it to make it look like he was jealous Charles was in the hotseat.
The police testified giving evidence that they believed Adrian had tried to help Charles on the first night but when he couldn’t get phone reception, Tecwen was called in. Sonia suggested that the police had mishandled the evidence. At that point members of the jury started coughing and the court session was suspended.
Sonia apologised to Charles and Diana outside of the court and they saw people walk past coughing. She asked why Charles hadn’t said anything about his Mensa badge and he answered that he believed it was self-explanatory.
Diana picked the kids up from school and as she got in the car, it was egged by children. The kids asked if their parents had done anything wrong and Diana didn’t answer.
At home Diana told Charles what had happened and suggested they plan for going to prison. Adrian called asking for an update on the book and Diana lost her temper before hanging up. Charles offered to get her a cup of tea and Diana broke down, apologising to her husband. They embraced and Diana asked if they were going to go to prison.
The next day at court Chris Tarrant (Michael Sheen) was on the stand to answer questions and give testimony. Sonia questioned Chris about the process of the show in terms of the questions and answers, and the information he is given by producers. She asked if he heard the coughing and he said he hadn’t, then she asked if he noticed anything suspicious and he said no to that too.
Chris’ testimony hit the headlines causing more headaches for Paul and David Liddiment (Risteard). David suggested that they consider making a documentary once the case ended.
Diana returned home with the kids to find Charles cradling their dog, who had been shot by a pellet gun. Later that night he buried the dog in the yard.
The next morning Charles was antagonised by teenagers who spat in his face causing a scuffle. At work Charles was told to take time off and keep his head down, and he burst into tears.
Back at court a cough expert testified that Tecwen had an uncontrollable cough, giving Sonia an opportunity to try and convince the jury that the coughing was a coincidence. Tecwen took the stand and Sonia asked about his love for quizzing before digging into his difficult upbringing.
Paul had been in the court room to witness everything and afterwards he searched online where he found out about The Syndicate. He contacted Paddy Spooner (Jeremy Killick) and met him for a drink to find out more about what The Syndicate did. Paddy explained how he’d trained himself to be able to help contestants during the callback interviews and boasted that he’d got hundreds of people onto the show. He then told Paul that 10% of the money won on the show was won by members of The Syndicate. Paddy then revealed he was retiring and when Paul said he wanted to see Charles and Diana in jail, Paddy told him they had never been his clients.
Diana took the stand and Sonia asked her what she loved about quizzes. Adrian turned up at court and was spotted by Paul. Diana concocted a story about thinking that the producers thought they were too boring to be on the show so she helped Charles get ready to be on TV. We then saw a montage of Diana testing Charles in a bid to increase his popular knowledge.
A wacky segment then saw Charles, Diana and Chris singing and dancing as Charles looked off into the distance.
Back in court Charles was now on the stand explaining why he struggled with the easy questions and sailed through the harder questions. When quizzed about why he changed his answer on the Craig David question, Charles said he heard the audience gasp when he picked the wrong answer and that’s what swayed him. He continued to deny that he had cheated.
Paul took the stand and Sonia led the questioning. She highlighted how Paul hadn’t been convinced that Charles had cheated initially and then told him how many coughs had occurred within the studio on the night of the filming. Sonia then picked on the fact that the coughs had been isolated to support the guilty narrative.
Questioning turned then to the show’s first millionaire and Sonia played the episode. She pointed out the coughs during each of the questions and asked why that woman hadn’t been accused of cheating. Paul insisted that Charles hadn’t played the game the way contestants normally did and Sonia revealed that he wasn’t there on the night of the filming until the end of the show.
Sonia asked why there were no coughs for 18 minutes at one point in the filming and Paul said that Charles knew the answers at those points. Paul then insisted that he knew that Charles had cheated.
Appealing to the jury, Sonia suggested that the production crew had reinforced their own guilty narrative by talking about their suspicions throughout the filming. She then attacked the coughs that had been isolated on the evidence and claimed that no one really heard the coughs inside the studio.
Sonia told the jury it wasn’t possible to know for sure whether Charles knew the answers or not, claiming they couldn’t find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Paul and Charles bumped into one another in the toilets and an awkward silence hung in the air as they ignored one another.
The verdict came in and the first person to be found guilty was Tecwen. The jury then announced that they found Diana and Charles guilty too. Their sentence was an 18-month suspended sentence and Sonia told them to go and live their lives.
Charles told Diana he was going to have to resign his commission. They kissed and left the court hand-in-hand, walking straight into a crowd of journalists waiting for them outside.
We then saw Charles and Diana get a big money offer to confess to what they did but they turned it down. The documentary made about them was a big ratings hit for ITV and the Ingrams returned to their normal lives.
Read our full Quiz episode 1 recap
Read our full Quiz episode 2 recap
Quiz is available to stream now on the ITV Hub.
