The character of the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will be the protagonist of a new TV film being made by Channel 4. He will be the unlikely key part in a drama written by James Graham, the playwright behind such recent political theatre treats as This House and Privacy. The drama will follow the tortuous, tense backroom dealings that led, in the space of days, to the creation of the coalition.
The film will be a one-off, 90-minute creation and has the working title Coalition.
The Telegraph reports playwright Graham’s explanation of his rather niche idea for a drama:
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’.
Subscribe to the New Statesman today and save 75%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.
In May 2010, after decades of single party rule and amidst growing disillusionment, all eyes turned to one man. A man who found himself with the power to change the landscape of British politics – and his career – forever. But at what cost?
Rather convincing. But Clegg’s team seems less sure about the idea. One spokesperson joked to the Telegraph “That would explain why Brad Pitt keeps calling”, whereas Michael Savage of the Times was told by a source close to the Deputy Prime Minister, “That explains why Daniel Craig has been calling”, and the Guardian‘s Nicholas Watt had “that would explain why George Clooney’s been calling”.
Twitter has other ideas, citing, among others, Colin Firth, Hugh Dennis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ricky Gervais and, err, Idina Menzel.
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