Fact and fiction
- 11 Oct 06, 10:59 AM
Woke up this morning believing that Prime Minister Pritchard had just appointed her first Cabinet. It must be true because I saw myself reporting it on telly last night.
If you do not know that of which I speak, it's 成人快手 One's new drama - The Amazing Mrs Pritchard - about a housewife who becomes prime minister after running a campaign against "politics as usual". Fun though the programme undoubtedly is, I feel rather ambivalent about having taken part in it. The premise of the series appears to be that politics as practised these days is a giant con on the voters. Call me na茂ve but this is not my view. On the other hand, Mrs P is already beginning to discover how tough it is really being PM so, perhaps, the final message of the series will be "it's a lot tougher than you thought, folks".
Is it only in America that politicians (real ones as against housewives who are catapulted to high office) are hailed as heroes? Here politicians are almost always portrayed as fools - Jim Hacker in Yes Minister and Hugh Abbott in The Thick of It - or as knaves - Francis Urquhart in House of Cards. I can't think of any fictional political hero or heroine recently except for and conquered the Slithenes in the last series of Doctor Who. Any thoughts?
