Lord of Misrule

Writer/director Guy Jenkin successfully synthesizes a variety of English social, political and cultural themes in this 1996 British TV film. James Fleet (Vicar of Dibley) plays a smooth-talking Tory Prime Minister who eerily resembles Tony Blair — Fleet’s NHS TV ad is particularly well done. Richard Wilson (One Foot in the Grave) is excellent as the cranky family patriarch and disaffected ex-Lord Chancellor who has the ability to topple a large part of the English Establishment. Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers) plays the Government’s Minister of Fisheries who is sent to make Wison’s character, Bill Webster, see some sense. Angus Deayton plays a delightful cameo as the head of MI5, swinging golf balls at Japanese tourists on the Thames. Martin Clunes (Men Behaving Badly) briefly appears as the Minister of Defence and there’s a surprise appearance by old Labour stalwart Dennis Healey. Stephen Moyer plays a reporter who is romancing the girl, but has ulterior motives.It has a fantastic setting as well (around Fowey in Cornwall).