Monday 20 December 2021

Party Animals (2007 Created by Ben Richards and Rob Jones)

Richards wrote Showtrial. This is an eight-parter for BBC.

Great beginning as we're introduced to all protagonists in dramatic opening of political drama. They are Labour MP Raquel Cassidy, researcher Matt Smith and assistant Andrea Riseborough; Tory MP Patrick Baladi, his assistant (and mistress) Shelley Conn and No. 2 Pip Carter; and Smith's brother, lobbyist Andrew Buchan and fellow Niall Macgregor. Turns out Smith has left his boss's speech in a pub toilet and his opposite number seizes it. Works its way well to a fractious conclusion that is somewhat open-ended.

Apart from bit parts, this would have been the first thing we saw Riseborough in. We had already encountered Smith the previous year in The Ruby In the Smoke. They and Cassidy are particularly good.

With slutty journalist Clemency Burton-Hill, lobbyist boss Colin Salmon, Whip (or some sort of political figure) Peter Wight, Kika Markham, Marian McLoughlin, Emily Beecham.




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