I came upon this DVD by accident recently and recognised the original author as being the current Labour MP for the Sunderland South constituency in the North East of England, Chris Mullin. Although I have never met this man, by reputation he was once a man of the hard left championing unpopular causes such as the appeal of alleged IRA prisoners for a bombing on mainland Britain whom he believed were convicted wrongly. He was also a minister for a while in one of Blair's governments who returned to the backbenches to maintain his independent stance on a number of issues. A soft spoken man, he appears as a thoughtful mild mannered but hard hitting man when he asks questions at Prime Ministers Question Time.

And therein lies the rub. As a drama with the Alan Plater script this show has a number of faults, the repetitious use of the only talk show interviewer and the exact same backroom people producing the show each time, some of the characters being a little wooden but a journeyman production nevertheless.

As an insider's look at the British government machine this is a treasure trove indeed. Watched in conjunction with the MI-5 seasons (known as Spooks in Britain), a good picture from a couple of perspectives, of the governmental machine emerges.

The central character resembles uncannily, a former MP in a Coventry constituency, Dave Nellist, and the setting of a hard left Labour victory was considered a possiblity in the 1980's after the election of Margaret Thatcher. It seems too that if permission was not given to film in the rooms of Number 10 Downing Street, then the researchers were given very good acccess and reproduced the inside almost exactly as you see when the characters ascend the stairs where the black and white portraits of previous Prime Ministers hang. The incumbent's photograph is only hung up upon their leaving office.

Much of this mini-series is accurate and true to life, such as as the new Prime Minister's life being almost taken over by the very polite, civil servants, shown to have their own agenda's and not being the impartial technicians pace Keynes. I was very pleased to see scenes set at Chequers, the country retreat or somewhere very similar to it. The machinations of the government and the almost required plotiing and scheming takes place mostly outside of the Houses of Parliament which really does not enter the equation.

All in all this show reflects a more socialistic view of how government works in practice in Britain. There is a strong current of Anti-Americanism throughout which in my view is not shared by the majority of people in Britain but which accurately reflects the inherent hostility of socialists towards America.

While some parts are deliberately extreme there is a clear understanding of the degree of sophistication which is the hallmark of the operations of the British establishment. Clearly influenced by the reins of power the new hardline Prime Minister ends up in the ministerial car and ends up in the Cabinet Room alone much as Margaret Thatcher ended her days there.

This is the British equivalent of the West Wing packed into three hours. I was so impressed I bought a copy. It should be reuired viewing for students of British politics everywhere and from my point of view it just goes to show that Friedrich Hayek was right when he advised Anthony Fisher who formed the Institute of Economic Affairs, not to go into politics.

An excellent insider view.


More prophesy than entertainment?   April 2, 2005
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

A Very British Coup is one of the landmark political dramas. Gripping from the outset. The election of a truly left-wing government and Prime Minister, who are intent on driving through their left-wing (and popular) agenda, scares the establishment into increasingly desperate machinations to discredit the elected representatives and regain control. What makes this drama so compulsive is the plausibility. I have an uneasy feeling that the situation this film portrays is more prophesy than entertainment.