Michael Sheen was among the millions of viewers tuning in to watch the second episode of Quiz on Tuesday night. But the Welsh star was left annoyed by a major mistake before the show even began. Michael plays Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant in the three-part dramatisation – but despite the huge success of the drama, the star was still incorrectly identified by the announcer. As the continuity trailer played to introduce the second of the three episodes, it was announced that 'Martin Sheen' would be playing the Millionaire host, with 'James Macfayden' playing Charles Ingram.
WATCH: ITV's Quiz - the official trailer
Understandably, Michael was less than impressed by the broadcaster’s mistake. "Hey @ITV the least you can do is get my name right in your trailers FFS," the 51-year-old tweeted. He then changed his Twitter name to 'Martin Sheen' in response to the faux pas. The mistake was not missed by viewers either. "@ITV must have missed this. Your announcer just said Martin Sheen was in #Quiz. Who is he playing lol!" one tweeted. A second scolded: "@ITV it's Michael Sheen not Martin Sheen in Quiz!" Author Caitlin Moran joked: "ITV announced him as 'Martin Sheen'. But to be fair, he's such a powerful and elastic actor, he could probably do a better Martin Sheen than Martin Sheen."
MORE: Chris Tarrant reacts to Michael Sheen playing him in Quiz
Michael Sheen has changed his Twitter name following the mix-up
Michael has carved out a hugely successful career portraying real-life people, from David Frost in Frost/Nixon, to former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa. And his uncanny impression of Chris Tarrant has made for compelling viewing. Taking to Twitter, one fan wrote: "Is it just me or is Michael Sheen doing a better job of portraying Chris Tarrant than Chris Tarrant does?" Another added: "I have to say Michael Sheen playing Chris Tarrant is absolute pure genius!" A third person tweeted: "Michael Sheen is a remarkable impersonator. That laugh. This IS Chris Tarrant." Chris' son Toby even praised the performance, tweeting: "Michael Sheen as expected is brilliant as Dad. To be fair, he’s so good he'd probably be convincing as my Norwegian auntie Tina."
MORE: Who Want to Be a Millionaire accused cheat Charles Ingram breaks silence on ITV drama Quiz
The Welsh star has been praised for his portrayal of Chris Tarrant
MORE: Quiz: Watch the real footage of Charles Ingram playing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Speaking about his new role, Michael explained: "Part of the challenge of playing characters that are very familiar to the audience watching the show is you want to make sure you deal with expectations. So an audience who are going to sit down and watch me play Chris Tarrant... you know people need to believe this. They are going, 'I want to see this actor convince me they are like that people.' They've got to meet that expectation immediately but you've also got to try and put that expectation aside as quickly as possible."
