Leaves you laughing

PICK DAY

BREXIT: THE UNCIVIL WAR

C4, 9pm BREXIT. The word may have been mentioned once or twice over the last couple of years.

And now, finally, we have a drama that promises to tell the tale in all its controversial glory.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Dominic Cummings, the real life leading strategist who ran the Vote Leave campaign. You may be distracted at first by Benedict’s makeover, complete with receding hairline and combover, but once you get past that, this is a funny and compelling tale about how the Brexit vote was won.

Benedict as Dominic is witty, eccentric and extremely clever.

As he scrawls thoughts and notes on walls and shocks politicians with his brutal honesty, it is a bit like watching Benedict as Sherlock. A balding Sherlock.

Dominic talks to camera, too, giving viewers the inside scoop on what he’s really thinking. “Everyone knows who won. But not everyone knows how,” he teases at the start.

As we’re introduced to various players and politicians, they are given a handy “Leave” or “Remain” label on screen, or in the case of Nigel Farage (played by Paul Ryan): “Very Leave.”

Starting in autumn 2015, just months before the vote, we also see Rory Kinnear as Craig Oliver, Dominic’s Remain counterpart, while Richard Goulding is transformed into a blustering Boris Johnson and Oliver Maltman plays Michael Gove.

From award-winning writer James Graham and based on first-hand accounts from both camps, this is an amusing exploration of one of biggest events in modern British history.

Or as Dominic puts it: “This referendum is a really dumb idea.

“Referendums are quite literally the worst way to decide anything.”