A Very British Coup

A Very British Coup is a 1982 novel by British politician Chris Mullin. In 1988, the novel was adapted for television, directed by Mick Jackson, with a screenplay by Alan Plater and starring Ray McAnally. The television series, first screened on Channel 4, won Bafta and Emmy awards, and was syndicated to more than 30 countries.

Plot (TV version)

Harry Perkins, an unassuming, working class, very left-wing Leader of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central, is elected Prime Minister in March 1989. The priorities of the Perkins Government include dissolving all newspaper monopolies, 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 U.S. 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 "yea unto the Middle Ages" have exercised subtle power behind the scenes. However Harry finds support in Joan Cook, a loyal Member of Parliament (MP) and Home Secretary; and Thompson, Perkins' Press Secretary; Inspector Page, his Head of Security and Monty Kowalski, his Military Advisor. It provides an intimate view of the machinations of a particularly British political conspiracy.

Main characters

• Harry Perkins MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party - played by Ray McAnally
• Sir Percy Browne, Head of MI5, head conspirator - played by Alan MacNaughton
• 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 of the BBC, conspirator - played by Jeremy Young
• Fiennes, assistant to Browne - played by Tim McInnerny
• Marcus Morgan, U.S. 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 Monty Kowalski, military advisor to Harry Perkins - 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
• Official bomb examiner - played by Andy Croft

Analysis

The book was written in 1981, at a time when Tony Benn looked likely to become leader of the Labour Party which at the time was strongly challenging the government of Margaret Thatcher in the opinion polls. It also has strong echoes of the persistent rumours that have circulated over the years about attempts by the British security services, and other wings of the British Establishment, to undermine and depose Harold Wilson's Labour government of the mid-1970s. This first became widespread public knowledge around 1986 with the controversy around Spycatcher, after the publication of the novel but before the broadcast of the TV version. The story also has echoes of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis in which there was alleged CIA involvement to remove a government proposing to close US military bases on Australian soil.

Differences between novel and TV

The endings of the novel and the television version are significantly different. In the novel the Prime Minister is ultimately forced from office following a catastrophic nuclear accident at an experimental nuclear plant that he had pushed for during his role as Secretary of State for Energy during a previous government (the most explicit parallel between Harry Perkins and Tony Benn in the novel).

In the TV version the Prime Minister is presented with forged evidence of financial irregularity following a long running affair, with the suggestion that he should resign rather than see the story made public. He agrees to make a resignation speech on live TV, but instead announces the attempted blackmail to the world along with a new election. Senior army officers watch in silence. The final sequence, on the morning of the election, is deliberately ambiguous, but implies that the military is about to stage a full-blown coup involving the assassination of Perkins.

DVD

The TV series will be released in the UK on DVD (region 2) in September 2011.

Awards

The TV version won four Bafta Awards - for Best Actor (Ray McAnally), Best Drama Series, Best Film Editor (Don Fairservice) and Best Film Sound - and one International Emmy Award for Best Drama.

See also

• Politics in fiction
• List of fictional revolutions and coups
• Harold Wilson conspiracy theories
• Clockwork Orange
• Seven Days in May

External links

• A Very British Coup at the Internet Movie Database
• Chris Mullin "When the threat of a coup seemed more than fiction" The Guardian, 7 March 2006
• A Very British Coup at the BFI's Screenonline
• Watch A Very British Coup on 4oD (UK only)

Preceded by Tutti Frutti

British Academy Television Awards Best Drama Series or Serial 1989

Succeeded by Mother Love