A Very British Coup (mini-series)

''A Very British Coup'' is a 1988 British political serial adapted from Chris Mullin's 1982 novel ''A Very British Coup'' in 1988 by screenwriter Alan Plater and director Mick Jackson. Starring Ray McAnally, the series was first screened on Channel 4 and won Bafta and Emmy awards, and was screened in more than 30 countries.

The 2012 four-part Channel 4 series '' Secret State'' was "inspired" by the same novel. It starred Gabriel Byrne and was written by Robert Jones.

Plot

Harry Perkins, an unassuming, working class, very left-wing Leader of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central, becomes Prime Minister in March 1991. The priorities of the Perkins Government include dissolving all newspaper monopolies, withdrawal from NATO, removing all American military bases on UK soil, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and true open government. Newspaper magnate Sir George Fison, with allies within British political and Civil Service circles, moves immediately to discredit him, with the United States the key, but covert, conspirator. The most effective of the Prime Minister's domestic enemies is the aristocratic Sir Percy Browne, Head of MI5, whose ancestors "unto the Middle Ages" have exercised subtle power behind the scenes. However, Perkins finds support in Joan Cook, his Home Secretary; Fred Thompson, his Press Secretary; Inspector Page, his police bodyguard; and Sir Montague Kowalski, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence.

The US Secretary of State visits London to try to persuade Perkins of his country's need of a nuclear deterrent, suggesting that American financial assistance is conditional upon the abandonment of his policies of nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from NATO. However, as Perkins undiplomatically rejects his pleas, asserting that he has the mandate to do so, severe financial pressure is applied to Britain in retaliation for his actions. The government turns to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which agrees to help, but only on condition that expenditure be cut by £10,000,000,000, effectively forcing Perkins to abandon most of his spending programmes. While the IMF offer is being debated in Cabinet, Perkins receives a call from his Foreign Secretary Tom Newsome, who has been having meetings in Sweden, and is able to announce that the International State Bank of Moscow has agreed to lend the money without preconditions. In retaliation, Newsome's affair with a woman with spurious IRA connections is reported by Fison's newspapers, resulting in his eviction from the Cabinet and his wife's suicide.

Failed negotiations between the government and labour unions to formulate an economic strategy result in a strike by the Power Workers' Union purportedly over job losses that might be caused by the adoption of alternative energy. The resultant blackouts seriously damage public opinion of the Perkins Government. After Thompson outlines the members of the conspiracy, including the moderate, politically ambitious Chancellor of the Exchequer Lawrence Wainwright, Perkins bluffs Wainwright into ending the strike by threatening to investigate his connections with his co-conspirators. Whilst Wainwright is subsequently demoted to Northern Ireland Secretary, Cook is promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Perkins Government's policies for nuclear disarmament and neutrality, despite the live national broadcast of the disarming of a nuclear warhead, are hampered by the Chiefs of Staff fudging the figures regarding British, Allied and Warsaw Pact military capabilities, representatives of the United States Armed Forces claiming that the removal of US military bases can only be achieved after five years (after the next planned general election), and the covert assassination of Sir Montague staged as a road accident.

Browne presents Perkins with forged evidence of financial irregularity suggesting that he had accepted £300,000 from the Soviet government as part of loan negotiations with the International State Bank of Moscow. Implicated in the allegation is Helen Spencer (née Jarvis), a financial advisor who helped negotiate the deal, and with whom Perkins was in a relationship with years earlier. Browne suggests that Perkins should resign rather than see the story made public, the groundwork having been laid by Fison with manufactured press speculation over Perkins's health and fake opinion polls suggesting overwhelming public support for a Wainwright premiership. Perkins agrees to make a resignation speech on live television, but instead exposes the attempted blackmail and calls for a new election and a public inquiry to be held. Senior Army officers and security service officials watch in silence.

The final sequence, on the morning of the election, is deliberately ambiguous, but implies that a military coup has begun: a polling station is shown with the screen becoming obscured by the shadow of a soldier, and the quiet of the early morning is disrupted by the noise of a helicopter. The scene quickly cuts to black.

Cast

* Harry Perkins MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party – portrayed by Ray McAnally
* Sir Percy Browne, Director General of MI5 – portrayed by Alan MacNaughtan
* Fred Thompson, Downing Street Press Secretary – portrayed by Keith Allen
* Lawrence Wainwright MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer – portrayed by Geoffrey Beevers
* Joan Cook MP, Home Secretary – portrayed by Marjorie Yates
* Tom Newsome MP, Foreign Secretary – portrayed by Jim Carter
* Sir George Fison, owner of a consortium of newspapers – portrayed by Philip Madoc
* Alford, Director-General of the BBC
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