A Very British Coup (TV series)

A Very British Coup is a 1988 British political serial adapted from Chris Mullin's 1982 novel A Very British Coup in 1988 by screenwriter Alan Plater and director Mick Jackson. Starring Ray McAnally, the series was first screened on Channel 4 and won Bafta and Emmy awards, and was screened in more than 30 countries.

A Very British Coup
Genre	Political drama
Based on	A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin
Written by	Alan Plater
Directed by	Mick Jackson
Starring	Ray McAnally Alan MacNaughtan Keith Allen Geoffrey Beevers Marjorie Yates Jim Carter
Theme music composer	John E. Keane
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	3
Production
Producers	Ann Skinner Sally Hibbin
Cinematography	Ernest Vincze
Editor	Don Fairservice
Running time	3 x 1 hour (Including ad breaks)
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Mono
Original release	19 June – 3 July 1988

The 2012 four-part Channel 4 series Secret State was "inspired" by the same novel.[1] It starred Gabriel Byrne and was written by Robert Jones.[2]

Plot

Harry Perkins, an unassuming, working class, very left-wing Leader of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central, becomes Prime Minister in March 1991. The priorities of the Perkins Government include dissolving all newspaper monopolies, withdrawal from NATO, removing all American military bases on UK soil, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and true open government. Newspaper magnate Sir George Fison, with allies within British political and Civil Service circles, moves immediately to discredit him, with the United States the key, but covert, conspirator. The most effective of the Prime Minister's domestic enemies is the aristocratic Sir Percy Browne, Head of MI5, whose ancestors "unto the Middle Ages" have exercised subtle power behind the scenes. However Harry finds support in Joan Cook, his Home Secretary; Frederick Thompson, his Press Secretary; Inspector Page, his Head of Security; and Sir Montague Kowalski, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser.

The US Secretary of State visits London and informs Perkins that his country will apply severe financial pressure in retaliation for his actions. The government turns to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which agrees to help, but only on condition that Perkins abandons most of his policies. While the IMF offer is being debated in cabinet, Perkins receives a call from his Foreign Secretary Tom Newsome, who has been having meetings in Sweden, and is able to announce that the International State Bank of Moscow has agreed to lend the money without preconditions.[3]

Perkins is presented with forged evidence of financial irregularity following a short-lived affair years previously; with the suggestion that he should resign rather than see the story made public. He agrees to make a resignation speech on live television, but instead announces the attempted blackmail and calls for a new election. Senior Army officers and security service officials watch in silence. The final sequence, on the morning of the election, is deliberately ambiguous, but implies that a military coup has begun.

Cast

• Harry Perkins MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party – played by Ray McAnally
• Sir Percy Browne, Director General of MI5, head conspirator – played by Alan MacNaughtan
• Frederick Thompson, former reporter and Perkins' Press Secretary – played by Keith Allen
• Lawrence Wainwright MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, later Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, conspirator – played by Geoffrey Beevers
• Joan Cook MP, Home Secretary, later Chancellor of the Exchequer – played by Marjorie Yates
• Tom Newsome MP, Foreign Secretary, resigns over affair – played by Jim Carter
• Sir George Fison, owner of a consortium of newspapers, conspirator – played by Philip Madoc
• Alford, Director General of the BBC, conspirator – played by Jeremy Young
• Fiennes, assistant to Browne – played by Tim McInnerny
• Marcus Morgan, US Secretary of State – played by Shane Rimmer
• Thomas Andrews MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, Prime Minister before Harry Perkins – played by Roger Brierley
• Inspector Page, Head of Security for the Prime Minister – played by Bernard Kay
• Sir Montague Kowalski, Government Chief Scientific Adviser – played by Oscar Quitak
• Sir Horace Tweed, Prime Minister's aide – played by Oliver Ford Davies
• Sir James Robertson, Cabinet Secretary – played by David McKail
• Helen Jarvis, former lover of Perkins – played by Kika Markham

Production

Setting

The series is set in 1991 and 1992, which was then the near future from when it was made (1988), with a King as the British monarch (the royal cypher on one of the Prime Minister's red boxes is shown as "C III R," suggesting that the monarch is Charles III, the current Prince of Wales). The 1991 and 1992 dates can be clearly seen on several newspapers and car tax discs shown on screen.

Writing

The endings of the novel and the television version are significantly different. In the novel, the Prime Minister is forced from office following a catastrophic nuclear accident at an experimental nuclear plant that he had pushed for while Secretary of State for Energy in a previous government. This is the most explicit parallel between Harry Perkins and Tony Benn who was in the post from 1975 to 1979. The ending was changed because "the TV people thought [Mullin] had allowed Perkins to cave in and resign too easily when he's blackmailed."[4]

Home media and streaming

The TV series of A Very British Coup was released in the UK on DVD (region 2) in September 2011.[5] The series is available for streaming within the United Kingdom on Channel 4's website.[6]

Awards

The TV version of A Very British Coup won four Bafta Awards in 1989 – for Best Actor (Ray McAnally), Best Drama Series, Best Film Editor (Don Fairservice) and Best Film Sound – and a 1988 International Emmy Award for Best Drama.[7]

See also

• Clockwork Orange (plot), an alleged 1974–75 British secret service black propaganda campaign against Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson
• House of Cards (British TV series)
• House of Cards (American TV series)
• Seven Days in May, a 1964 American political thriller film about a military coup in response to a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union
• Okkupert, a 2015 Norwegian political thriller TV series about a Russian occupation of Norway in response to a Green government shutting down fossil fuel production
• List of fictional Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

Notes

1. Mullin, Chris (5 November 2012). "Secret State: I played the vicar in the TV version of my novel". guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media.
2. Conlan, Tara (24 January 2012). "Gabriel Byrne returns to UK television in Channel 4's Coup". guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media.
3. "Very British Coup, A (1988)". Screenonline. BFI. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
4. Dowd, Vincent (24 September 2015). "A Very British Coup 35 years on". BBC News.
5. "Review: A Very British Coup DVD". Total Politics. 2 September 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
6. "A Very British Coup". Retrieved 11 November 2020.
7. Awards for "A Very British Coup" (1988) Internet Movie Database

External links

• A Very British Coup at IMDb
• A Very British Coup at the BFI's Screenonline
• A Very British Coup 4oD (Video on Demand – UK only)