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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Deal

21:46 / 01.10.03

Kinda surprised no-one mentioned this - but then, it was possibly the Most Trailed Channel 4 Drama Ever, so perhaps people tired of the hype.

The timing struck me as significant (sandwiched between Blair's lowest ratings ebb and Saturday's anti-war demonstration, and Brown's 'soul of the Labour Party' speech on Monday), and probably good fodder for conspiracy theorists. I'm not sure to what extent it stood up as a piece of drama, though - or even if it's possible to evaluate it as a stand-alone piece of drama. The subject matter was compelling (to me, anyway) and the lead actors were excellent, particularly sexy ol' David Morrissey as Brown (Sheen's Blair was a tad Julian Claryesque by comparison) but some of the dialogue was seriously clunky, and secondary characters were either ciphers (Cherie) or (admittedly amusing) caricatures (moustache-twirling, shadow-skulking Mandy). There wasn't much sense of the two men having much life outwith Parliament - but then, having known individuals who devote themselves passionately to politics, I'm not sure this is necessarily a fault.

Thoughts?

00:15 / 02.10.03

Well, I thought it was reasonably entertaining. The narrow focus - keeping it's lens firmly on the Tony-Gordan relationship - was a dramatic coup, afterall it had the potential to not only be dry and dull, but also an inarticulate scattershot portrayal of Labour politics throughout the Nineties.

Not great, but good enough.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:57 / 02.10.03

It perhaps should have been called 'Gordon's Story' as it did seem rather unfair to Tony and didn't really do too good a job of showing his conversion from wanting to be the Deputy to Gordon's Leader to being the Leader and offering Gordon the Shadow Chancellor's job.

Continuity was rather shagged too, Gordon and Tony walking around Westminster streets that were transparently not as they were a decade ago.

But it was a competent bit of drama, I liked the use of TV pictures for characters that weren't going to be in the show (like Kinnock and Thatch) and actors for those that were, such as John Smith. Livingstone's appearence was a bit unnecessary though, was he having an afternoon off from running London or something?

It had an interesting parallel with 'The Project', which the BBC had shown earlier in the year, although that was more concerned with the post-Blair becoming Leader era. They both had that sheer sense of disbelief that at the start of the 90s, Labour still couldn't beat the Tories.

17:04 / 02.10.03

I must admit I still cringe mightily when they show poor ol' Kinnock doing his doomed "awl-RAAAAAHT!" thang...

20:32 / 02.10.03

And let's not forget Dexter Fletcher's finest moment:
"Ere, that bloke smells of vanilla!"

19:08 / 05.10.03

And the way Mandy was never seen to walk through a door. He was perpetually hovering and eavesdropping just round corners and just outside doors, and then suddenly in the room beside the protagonist.

Puzzled that they flashed up the moment, late in the day by their reckoning, when Peter became Tony's best friend and stopped sharing his playpiece with Gordon, given that Mandelson was godfather to one of the Blair babies years before that.