Channel 4 have announced that there will be a 90 minute drama about Nick Clegg and the formation of the coalition, broadcast in the run up to next year’s General Election.
From the Guardian
Writer James Graham [another James Graham], who also penned political plays This House and Tory Boyz, said: “In May 2010, British politics was faced with a dilemma it hadn’t had to face in peacetime for over 75 years. The public were asked ‘who should govern’, and they came back with the answer – ‘we don’t know’.
“Those historic, dramatic few days put personalities at the heart of politics – and the choices made, I believe, changed the face of British politics forever. What we try to capture in this drama is the tension, the high stakes, and the frequent farcical and absurd nature of what happens when a power is wrangled, negotiated and fought over like children trading cards in the playground.”
I am reminded of ‘The Trial of Tony Blair‘ encapsulated in a scene where Blair, having been arrested, is protesting at having to give a DNA sample (because of one of his own laws) and is chided by a condescending young police officer that he should have thought of all this before invading Iraq. I found that funny at the time, though Blair’s supporters probably did not, so much.
But there is an important story to be told here and a serious drama could be very positive for public understanding even if it ignores (as, in a sense, it should) the party’s line. On the other hand we could just get cheap gags and cheap caricatures.
There is some speculation on social media as to who will be cast as Nick Clegg, and our friends at the Ad Lib blog are running a poll, though the obvious Sheffield choice, Sean Bean, seems to have been omitted, probably because he’s been playing too many bad guys lately.
* Joe Otten was the candidate for Sheffield Heeley in June 2017 and Doncaster North in December 2019 and is a councillor in Sheffield.
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23 Comments
To be subtitled:
“Very Far Indeed From The Middling Crowd”?
That should do us a lot of good!!! Things are bad enough without this. Yesterdays loss of a seat at Wroxham shows that, vote down on an election in March even with no UKIP candidate. Opinion polls at Famouth and Redruth seats see a swing of 3 – 4% to the Conservatives and good old Hampstead has us at 13%. Loads of the Con Lab marginals see us at below lost deposit level. But still we ignore all the messages the electorate are sending, it seems over.
On the whole Channel 4 is more hostile towards Lib Dems than most. I am astonished that such a programme could be aired in the run up to an election. I fear that an outcome consisting of cheap caricatures is a much more likely than a balanced informative account.
I had (rather naïvely)hoped that Lib Dems had exhausted the supply of naïvety regarding the assumed good will of others.
What Martin said
@Martin
They are you using Lord Adonis’ book as the basis, so a balanced account is hardly likely given that book argued that, in effect, turning water into wine was a viable option.
Casting Sean Bean would probably get them too far from the truth, seeing that Sean Bean has a habit of dying in pretty much everything he is in.
@Maria Pretzler
“Casting Sean Bean would probably get them too far from the truth”
Correct, as Sean Bean is very popular.
What they need is a man-you-love-to-hate type actor – Brian Capron perhaps?
@ATF
“They are using Lord Adonis’ book as the basis, so a balanced account is hardly likely given that book argued that, in effect, turning water into wine was a viable option.”
More like trying to turn Labour sour grapes into wine. If this is true, it will be a disgusting and deliberate political stitch up at a crucial time in the run up to the election.
Only if we get a fair and balanced appraisal of what the actual options facing Clegg really were at the time do we stand a chance of benefiting from this. Unfortunately it sounds like C4 is simply using it as an axe-grinding opportunity.
The inevitable twitter hashtag #LibDemMovies has appeared. Most of them are pretty dire, but I like “The Good, The Spads and The Ugly”.
Will the real Nick Clegg please stand up and continue to stand tall for helping secure some genuine Liberal policies when leading our Party in a UK government for the first time in two generations.
I for one believe Mr Clegg has done a great job whilst surrounded by Torags plus so many feint hearts within our own ranks.
I agree with Galen Milne. Nick Clegg has done pretty well considering the duff hand he was dealt and the sniping from some on our own side most of whom you wouldn’t want around you in a fight!
I am astonished that this could be proposed to be aired during a General Election campaign. Basing a drama on a piece of Labour propaganda during an election is an absurd breach of impartiality by C4.
Wow, those Labour lot must be busy running Channel 4, The Guardian, and every other news outlet that is apparently in some vast conspiracy to make the Lib Dems look foolish. I mean, obviously nothing the party or leadership has done could cause such public hostility, it must all be those fiendish Labour-ites who somehow control everything.
You don’t want people to make mocking films about Nick Clegg, get rid of him. Put someone with a modicum of ability into the role, and see if they can maybe have some effect on the plunge into irrelevancy of your party.
If It shows, the very difficult situation the country was in at that time- and the way the Lib Dems were prepared, and very capable- then well and good. But , as practically all media only reports negative stories or nothing at all about the Lib Dems I don’t suppose it will help very much!
It would be very informative for the ignorant and ill-informed people of this country if someone made a documentary of that time. It could be very interesting if done honestly.
You still get slots for party political broadcasts, why not use that to educate all us ignorant ill-informed crowd? Every political party gets mocked by the media, that’s the cost of living in a free state. However, most other parties still have a voter base left, so aren’t that bothered about it.
Simon F ; “Every political party gets mocked by the media”
Of course- but the Tory/Labs get support by their own media.
“Of course- but the Tory/Labs get support by their own media.”
Because the people reading/watching that particular media support the respective party, and it makes a market to which the paper/magazine/show can be aimed at. Have a voter base, some aspect of the media will target itself towards that base.
Lib Dems had the Guardian. Then the party did everything it possibly could to drive away as much of the voter base as possible. Now go read some comments under a Guardian article about the Lib Dems, see how that voter base is doing.
The point is, IT’S NOT THE FAULT OF THE MEDIA. YOU CAN’T ACTIVELY DRIVE AWAY YOUR ENTIRE VOTER BASE AND THEN BLAME YOUR LACK OF SUPPORT ON THE PEOPLE REPORTING IT.
Nick Clegg to be played by Rowan Atkinson?
@Maria Pretzler:
“Casting Sean Bean would probably get them too far from the truth, seeing that Sean Bean has a habit of dying in pretty much everything he is in.”
Whereas Nick Clegg stays alive but kills off pretty much everything he is in? I didn’t know Mr Bean’s name was Sean.
@simon F, speakin’ truth.
Totally with @simon F on this one.
Some posts on this thread are not only sadly funny, but quite telling.
@AC Trussell says: “It would be very informative for the ignorant and ill-informed people of this country if someone made a documentary of that time.”
Well, I’m sure calling the electorate “ignorant” and “misinformed” will definitely work on the doorstep, right?
Since the formation of the coalition, it has been interesting to see how this party has reacted to bad news, scandals, and mistakes made by your leadership and MPs. First you guys blamed Labour for everything. Then you blamed the voters for either not listening or “not understanding” coalition and there have been posts here, much like @AC Trussell’s which call the electorate “stupid”. You’ve also blamed the media (including the Guardian, who lest we forget was the only national newspaper to come out in full support of your party in 2010). Now you’re blaming TV bosses. and saying it’s a Labour conspiracy/plot. Paranoid much?
When are you lot going to realise it’s not a conspiracy? When are you going to start blaming yourselves instead of the voters, Labour, the media, etc.?
> a serious drama could be very positive for public understanding
The country will want blood and this is part of the warm-up excitement; in this sense it will be like the last election where the glee is in the demise of a politician. There are sacraments to be observed and the C4 political drama is one of the phases in sacrificing a politician on the media altar, who’s to blame? The people that didn’t know when a leader was spent have given the media a whole year to come up with the most brutal anti-Clegg campaign, they won’t disappoint!
Grab the popcorn – there’s a horror flick just about to start…
This will be difficult for Channel 4. In the run-up to an election, they will have to produce something reasonably “balanced”, or else they will be pilloried for presumed bias. So for example, if they show that the Tories and Orange Bookers got what they wanted by means of trumped-up scare stories about an imminent financial catastrophe, they will be pilloried by one side for telling unwelcome truths. If on the other hand they present a version of events that ignores that aspect, then they will be pilloried by the other side for not telling the full truth.
It’s understandable then that they say “What we try to capture in this drama is the tension, the high stakes, and the frequent farcical and absurd nature of what happens…”. In other words, the safe thing to do is to turn it into a comedy thriller.
I would suggest that this will serve Clegg’s interests a lot better than a realistic documentary would have done.