A Very British Coup

"A Very British Coup" is a 1982 novel by Chris Mullin, and a 1988 British television adaptation of the novel, adapted by Alan Plater and starring Ray McAnally. The television series, first screened on Channel 4, won Bafta and Emmy awards, and was syndicated to more than 30 countries.

Plot

Harry Perkins, an unassuming, working class, very left-wing Labour politician is elected Prime Minister in March 1989. The priorities of the Perkins Government include the dissolving all newspaper monopolies, removing all American military bases on U.K. soil, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and true open government. Immediately, the right wing and allies scheme to depose him, with the U.S. the key, but covert, conspirator.

However Harry finds support in that of Joan Cook, a loyal MP and Home Secretary; Morgan, the US Secretary of State and Thompson, Perkins' Press Secretary; Inspector Page, his Head of Security and Monty Kowalski, his Military Advisor.

Main Characters

* Harry Perkins MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party - Played by Ray McAnally
* Sir Percy Browne, Head of MI5, head conspirator - Played by Alan MacNaughton
* Frederick Thompson, former reporter and Perkins' Press Secretary - Played by Keith Allen
* Lawrence Wainwright MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, later Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, conspirator - Played by Geoffrey Beevers
* Joan Cook MP, Home Secretary, later Chancellor of the Exchequer. Played by Marjorie Yates
* Tom Newsome MP, Foreign Secretary, resigns over affair - Played by Jim Carter
* Sir George Fison, Owner of a consortium of newspapers, conspirator - Played by Philip Madoc
* Alford, Director of the BBC, conspirator - Played by Jeremy Young
* Fiennes, Assistant to Browne - Played by Tim McInnerny
* Marcus Morgan, ally of Harry Perkins. US Secretary of State - Played by Shane Rimmer
* Thomas Andrews MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, Prime Minister before Harry Perkins - Played by Roger Brierley
* Inspector Page, Head of Security for the Prime Minister - Played by Bernard Kay
* Sir Monty Kowalski, Military Advisor to Harry Perkins - Played by Oscar Quitak
* Sir Horace Tweed, Prime Minister's PPS - Played by Oliver Ford Davies
* Sir James Robertson, Cabinet Secretary - Played by David McKail
* Helen Jarvis, former lover of Perkins - Played by Kika Markham
* Official bomb examiner - played by Andy Croft

Analysis

The book was written around 1982-83, at a time when the Labour Party was in deep trouble and there was much debate about the direction in which it should go. It also has strong echoes of the persistent rumours that have circulated over the years about attempts by the British and American security services, and other wings of the British Establishment, to undermine and depose Harold Wilson's Labour government of the mid-1970s. This first became widespread public knowledge around 1986 with the controversy around "Spycatcher", after the publication of the novel but before the broadcast of the TV version.

The endings of the novel and the television version are significantly different.

ee also

* Politics in fiction
* List of fictional revolutions and coups

External links

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* Chris Mullin, "The Guardian", 7 March 2006, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1725302,00.html "When the threat of a coup seemed more than fiction"]
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