BORIS ACTUALLY
He’s the first PM to live in No 10 with a girlfriend since ... Hugh Grant! And as these double takes reveal, their scenes are eerily alike
The PATh to true love is often fraught with peril, but Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds took their relationship to a higher level this week.
Amid scenes achingly reminiscent of the hit film Love Actually, they have moved into Downing Street together, putting past troubles behind them and instead investing in the glory of their own union.
In the original 2003 romcom, hugh Grant plays a handsome, singleton prime minister who falls for the No 10 tea lady, Martine McCutcheon. ‘If you look for it,’ says drippy hugh at one point, ‘I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.’
Let’s imagine, then, the opening moments of Boris Actually when a rapturous Carrie receives homeware deliveries from John Lewis.
The boxes contain glassware and crockery, along with a jumbo spray of Dabitoff wine stain remover and a large pudding bowl to use when cutting the PM’s hair.
‘Perfect,’ she whispers, caressing the bowl. ‘Now my new life can really begin.’
To be fair, the eponymous hero in Boris Actually is not technically single — he is going through a divorce from his second wife and mother of four children, Marina.
Meanwhile, Carrie might smart at being depicted as a ‘milk and two sugars’ trolley dolly because, look here, she has a Twitter account and everything. And after all, the 31-year-old conservationist has devoted her entire professional career to saving endangered species, in this case the Conservative Party.
Yet despite a few variances, the Love Actually parallels with Boris Actually are clear for all to see — and the drenching romance is irresistible. Golden boy meets flaxen girl and sweeps her into the corridors of power, driven by the touching belief that love and being blond will, somehow, conquer all.
The lovebirds leave the cramped South London flat where neighbours spy, plot and eavesdrop — to move into a cramped flat in central London, where the neighbours are even worse. Plus there are regular doorstep appearances by an uninvited Kay Burley.
Yet nothing can stop them, not even the smoking ruins of his personal life nor the looming political problems that won’t go away. In the face of all this, Boris and Carrie have still clasped their hands together like innocents, and walked into their future as one.
And that is a really beautiful thing, kindling the quiet belief in the most cynical heart that whatever happens next it is love, actually, that will prevail.
Or will it be Boris, actually? Don’t hold your breath.