Writingabout theTorieswas immensefun
MARION McMULLEN talks to leading man Hugh Laurie and writer Sir David Hare about their new political thriller, Roadkill
POLITICAL power comes at a price and Hugh Laurie shows just how far one person is prepared to go to reach the top, in new series Roadkill. The 61-year-old actor plays charismatic Conservative cabinet minister Peter Laurence in the BBC’s new political thriller, a rising star with a bright future ahead of him after winning a newspaper libel case. While celebrating his triumph, he receives a call from the Prime Minister – she’s considering promoting him, which would mean swapping his current role as Minister for Transport for a more eye-catching office of state.
But Peter shouldn’t be feeling too pleased with himself, or resting on his laurels – the vultures are already circling.
Says Hugh: “The story is in some regards about the price he is prepared to pay to get to the top position and the price that he forces everyone else to pay, principally his family, but also those who pledge their loyalty to him.”
He adds: “He is a man who is relatively free of the gravity of guilt and whose life mission is to keep moving forward and not to look back. When we first join him, he has just escaped the jaws of failure at the very least. He has taken the unusual step of suing a newspaper in a libel case, which is, generally speaking, something that politicians don’t do, or are not advised to do. He’s a confident fellow and is confident in his ability to talk himself out of a jam.”
Hugh says he owes the writer of Roadkill, playwright Sir David Hare, a huge debt of gratitude.
“It’s been enormously enjoyable to say David Hare’s words and also to work with the cast that’s been assembled for this,” says Hugh. “I wouldn’t be here without David Hare. He wrote what I think was the first film I was ever in, called Plenty. I think I had three lines, but it meant spending a week in the company of Meryl Streep, and blimey!
“That was entirely because of his support and enthusiasm, which I have tried to repay and failed.
“David has a different way of looking at people and listening to people,” Hugh adds, “some of which has that jaggedness and awkwardness that I find so much more believable and intriguing.”
Sir David himself says: “By my calculation I’ve lived almost 50 years under Tory rule.
“There are a couple of good plays about Harold Macmillan, and during the 1980s, there was a huge amount of satirical vituperation against Margaret Thatcher. At that time, I wrote a film lm called Paris By Night in which Charlotte Rampling played a Thatcherite MP. But I’m typical among the writers of my time in having rarely looked closely at the appeal of Conservative values. In Roadkill, I wanted to ask what happens when you put ideals of freedom and personal responsibility above all other virtues.”
Hugh first found TV fame as part of a comedy double act with Stephen Fry, and went on to international success, playing the brilliant but anti-social doctor Gregory House, in the acclaimed American TV series House. In 2012, the Guinness Book of World Records said he was the most watched leading man on television because of the worldwide appeal of the series.
Hugh’s character in Roadkill also so has a complicated life.
“His job demands a certain degree of loyalty to the Prime Minister, but he has a long and stable marriage to his wife Helen, played by Saskia Reeves, and they have a genuine fondness for each other and a genuine pride in their two daughters,” says Hugh. “They are childhood swe sweethearts and have taken quite a jour journey together. It subsequently turn turns out that Peter is also carrying on a liaison with another woman. Then there’s Iain De Caestecker, who plays Duncan, who is a very shar sharp lieutenant to have at Peter’s side side. They are in it together. They aren aren’t quite like Butch and
Sun Sundance – there’s no gun play and no car chases!”
The cast also includes Patricia Ho Hodge as newspaper owner Lady Roc Roche and Peaky Blinders star He Helen McCrory as Prime Minister Daw Dawn Ellison.
H Helen says she had fun playing the woman running the country. ““I’ve been to Downing Street an and I’ve met various prime ministers, but what is interesting is whatever your personal politics, they all have quite extraordinary, powerful presences in a room,” she says. “Even if you didn’t vote for them, when a
prime minister walks in the room you can feel it – you know why they’re Prime Minister.
“When Obama walked into a room you knew why he was president. These people have power. I don’t know how much power Dawn has, but I had a lot of fun throwing my toys around in the pram because that’s more where I think Dawn is. I don’t think she is a huge threat to politics.”
Viewers may draw comparisons, but Sir David insists none of the characters are based on real-life politicians. “Peter Laurence, is not based on anyone. Nor are the other characters,” he says. “Mine is a parallel world to the real one, and there is no secret passage between the two. You will be wasting your time if you think that the purpose of the series is to work out who everyone is ‘meant to be’.
“In Roadkill, neither Covid nor Brexit consume every politician’s waking hour. Writing about the Tories has given me an immense amount of fun, and pushed me towards conclusions which I hope are unexpected. “With luck, TV drama won’t wait quite so long to put Conservatives under the
microscope again.”
When Obama walked into a room you knew why he was president. These people have power...
Helen McCrory who plays the British Prime Minister in Roadkill