Breathless glimpse at UK’s bungling government
‘‘HIS elevation will signal Britain’s abandonment of any claim to be a serious country.’’
The words of Boris Johnson’s former boss at the Daily Telegraph, Max Hastings, delivered by Tywin Lannister himself Charles Dance, haunt the new six-part docu-drama This England.
A ‘‘fiction based on real events’’, it charts Johnson’s rise to the role of prime minister in 2019 and the almost immediate challenges he faced in the form of Brexit, Storm Dennis and Covid.
In truth, writers Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, The Trip) and Kieron Quirke’s (Cuckoo) depiction of him – and the characterisation of Kenneth Branagh, who takes on the role – actually feels fairly kind. Yes, he comes across as pompous, bumbling and full of bluster (and rather self-centred and short-sighted when it comes to his family life), but there’s something about Branagh’s version of the Greek Homerquoting, Simpsons’ Homer-esque Johnson that’s rather endearing. Sure the great thespian’s voice isn’t exactly en pointe and his likeness is a true testament to the makeup department, however the sight and sound of Branagh-asJohnson
quoting Richard II just seems apt and ironic at the same time.
No, the real villain of this tale is the newly minted Prime Minister’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings (Brexit: The Uncivil War’s Simon Paisley Day). Determined to shake up Whitehall, he immediately embarks on
‘‘clearing out the deadwood’’ and replacing them with ‘‘true wild cards, clever people with extreme curiosity and a capacity for hard work’’.
Yet, This England strongly suggests, it was this determination not to be ‘‘distracted by events’’ so they could focus on long-term strategies that caused the country to be fatally unprepared when the coronavirus finally reached their isle. When the first emergency flight of Britons being evacuated from Wuhan arrives,
Cummings is angry it’s the same day of the Johnson government’s great triumph – Brexit. When Storm Dennis wreaks havoc and devastation, he defends their inaction by saying that they shouldn’t be ‘‘seen as responding to events, when they’re aiming to shape them’’.
And it’s only when the tabloids come out with damning headlines like ‘‘Get a grip, you drip’’ and the economic markets start to wobble as the virus becomes a pandemic, that Cummings realises they may have to deal with what’s happening right at that moment.
While perhaps a little breathless in its approach, the opening episode cleverly segues between news footage and dramatic reconstructions, capturing all the ‘‘historic turning points’’ as the crises facing the increasingly dis-United Kingdom grow.
But, the episode’s defining moment is perhaps when Cummings responds to increasing alarm that the government isn’t doing much about a ‘‘public health emergency of international concern’’ with the immortal line: ‘‘Isn’t it insane that people as ignorant as me can have the influence we do?’’
This England debuts on TVNZ 1 at 8.30pm, tonight. Episodes also streaming on TVNZ+.