The series is based on James Graham's play of the same name and was commissioned drawing on the book Bad Show: the Quiz, the Cough, the Millionaire Major by Bob Woffinden and James Plaskett.

Left Bank Pictures was reported to be developing a television adaptation of Quiz in March 2018, with Stephen Frears in talks to direct by April 2019; ITV and AMC officially co-commissioned the three-episode drama in August 2019.

Writer James Graham pitched Quiz as 'Ocean's 11, but with really middle-class English people using encyclopedias instead of guns,' and said he tried to detail both sides of the story when writing it.

Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford both tried to humanize the Ingrams rather than mimic their real-life mannerisms or appearances, focusing instead on the script since they felt the couple had become easy pantomime villains in the public eye.

Michael Sheen said in an interview with Variety that playing the role gave him newfound respect for quiz show presenters.

The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? studio scenes were filmed on a set built at Wimbledon Studios, while other scenes were shot outside Southwark Crown Court and inside a former court building in Hammersmith.

To play Chris Tarrant, Michael Sheen had to be blonde; every filming day, makeup artists fitted him with a bald cap, applied three layers of hair glue, and then added a blonde wig.

The real Charles and Diana Ingram visited the set during filming to meet the actors portraying them.

The first episode drew a live average audience of 5.3 million viewers in the United Kingdom, with the combined total audience across the series surpassing 10 million; while it aired, Charles Ingram's Wikipedia article became one of the most viewed on the site.

Charles Ingram, who has always denied the cheating charges, praised the series as 'balanced,' while Chris Tarrant was initially positive about Sheen's casting but later called the show's suggestion that Ingram might be innocent 'blatant nonsense.'