''A Very British Coup'' is a 1988 British political
serial adapted from
Chris Mullin
Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (in 2010 as a memb ...
's 1982 novel ''
A Very British Coup
''A Very British Coup'' is a 1982 novel by British politician Chris Mullin. The novel has twice been adapted for television; as '' A Very British Coup'' in 1988 and as '' Secret State'' in 2012.
Plot
Harry Perkins is the left-wing Leader of th ...
'' in 1988 by screenwriter
Alan Plater
Alan Frederick Plater (15 April 1935 – 25 June 2010) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s.
Career
Plater was born in Jarrow, County Durham, although his family ...
and director
Mick Jackson. Starring
Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally (30 March 1926 – 15 June 1989) was an Irish actor. He was the recipient of three BAFTA Awards in the late 1980s: two BAFTA Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor (for ''The Mission'' in 1986 and ''My Left Foot'' in 1989), and ...
, the series was first screened on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
and won
Bafta and
Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
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
Gabriel James Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, audiobook narrator, and author. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's s ...
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
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Sheffield Central
Sheffield Central is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Paul Blomfield, a member of the Labour Party.
Boundaries
;First creation
1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Sheffield wards of S ...
, becomes
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
in March 1991. The priorities of the Perkins Government include dissolving all newspaper monopolies, withdrawal from
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
, removing all American military bases on UK soil,
unilateral nuclear disarmament
__NOTOC__
Unilateralism is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action. Such action may be in disregard for other parties, or as an expression of a commitment toward a direction which other parties may find disagreeable. As a word, ''un ...
, and true
open government
Open government is the governing doctrine which sustain that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state and ...
.
Newspaper magnate Sir George Fison, with allies within British political and
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
circles, moves immediately to discredit him, with the United States the key, but
covert
Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret.
Secrecy is often controvers ...
, conspirator. The most effective of the Prime Minister's domestic enemies is the aristocratic Sir Percy Browne, Head of
MI5
The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
, 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 Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK's Ministry of Defence is responsible for providing strategic management of science and technology issues in the MOD, most directly through the MOD research budget of well over £1 billion, and sits as a full me ...
.
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
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
(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
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
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
Ira or IRA may refer to:
*Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name
*Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name
*Iran, UNDP code IRA
Law
*Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...
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
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a Orders of magnitude (time), human timescale. It includes sources such as Solar power, sunlight, wind power, wind, the movement of Hydropo ...
. 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
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the Atomic nucleus, nucleus of the atom:
*Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
*Nuclear ...
and neutrality, despite the live national broadcast of the disarming of a nuclear warhead, are hampered by the
Chiefs of Staff
The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the support ...
fudging the figures regarding British,
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
and
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
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
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
and Leader of the
Labour Party – portrayed by
Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally (30 March 1926 – 15 June 1989) was an Irish actor. He was the recipient of three BAFTA Awards in the late 1980s: two BAFTA Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor (for ''The Mission'' in 1986 and ''My Left Foot'' in 1989), and ...
* Sir Percy Browne,
Director General
A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals''
) or general director is a senior executive (government), executive officer, often the chief executive offi ...
of
MI5
The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
– portrayed by
Alan MacNaughtan
Alan MacNaughtan (4 March 1920 – 29 August 2002) was a Scottish actor, born in Bearsden, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. He was educated at the Glasgow Academy, trained at RADA, and graduated in 1940 with the Bancroft Gold Medal. An experienc ...
* Fred Thompson,
Downing Street Press Secretary
The Downing Street Press Secretary is an adviser to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on news media and how to manage the image of the British government to the press. The position is part of the Prime Minister's Office and involves using ...
– portrayed by
Keith Allen
* Lawrence Wainwright MP,
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
– portrayed by
Geoffrey Beevers
Geoffrey Beevers (born 15 January 1941) is a British actor who has appeared in many different stage and screen roles.
Career Theatre
Beevers has worked extensively at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, both as an actor (including ...
* Joan Cook MP,
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
– portrayed by
Marjorie Yates
Marjorie Yates (born 13 April 1941) is a British actress best known for her role as Carol Fisher in the Channel 4 drama '' Shameless''.
Yates was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, and studied at the Bournville College of Art. An early TV ...
* Tom Newsome MP,
Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
– portrayed by
Jim Carter
* Sir George Fison, owner of a
consortium
A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...
of newspapers – portrayed by
Philip Madoc
* Alford,
Director-General
A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals''
) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a government ...
of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
– portrayed by David McKail
* Helen Jarvis, former lover of Perkins – portrayed by
The series is set in 1991 and 1992, which was then the near future from when it was made (1988), with a King as the British monarch (the
, who in real-life acceded to the throne in 2022). The 1991 and 1992 dates can be clearly seen on several newspapers and
shown on screen.
The endings of the novel and the television version are significantly different. In the novel, the Prime Minister is forced from office following a catastrophic
in a previous government. This is the most explicit parallel between Harry Perkins and
who was in the post from 1975 to 1979. The ending was changed because "the TV people thought
The TV series of ''A Very British Coup'' was released in the UK on DVD (region 2) in September 2011. The series is available for streaming within the United Kingdom on
's website.
for Best Drama.