The Lady Review The Politician's Husband: A Big Brainy Sexy Political Drama




Michael Moran of The Lady has given The Politician’s Husband starring David Tennant and Emily Watson a convincing recommendation.

He says:

The Politician’s Husband, starting this week, is a reminder of how television should be. It’s a big, brainy, sexy political drama with a splendid cast and no compromise made for lightweights. It’s set in the hermetic world of modern politics, where everyone went to university with everyone else and it isn’t unknown for two top-flight MPs to be married to one another.

David Tennant is the titular politician’s husband: Aiden Hoynes. He’s a political big beast whose leadership bid has led to exile from the cabinet. A vengeful prime minister has promoted Hoynes’s wife Freya (Emily Watson) to Cabinet. Freya has to date, backburnered her ambitions in favour of her husband’s career, but that’s set to change.

The PM isn’t the only person who underestimates Freya and imagines she can be manipulated. In one lovely bit of dialogue Hoynes tells his wife, ‘This is an opportunity to prove you’re your own person. Nobody’s puppet,’ and then with scarcely a breath, ‘I’ll email you the bullet points to get you word-perfect.’

There’s a cracking supporting turn from Roger Allam as an oleaginous chief whip. It’s a bit confusing as he played a not dissimilar part in The Thick Of it, but he really is the best at this kind of role. And he gets some brilliant lines.

The line between fact and fiction (and other fiction) is further blurred by a pivotal appearance from Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark.

Jack Shepherd pops up as Hoynes’s dad, who acts as the ambitious MP’s conscience – saying a lot of the things that we’d like to be able to say to real politicians. The challenges the Hoyneses face at Westminster are compounded by crises on the home front, too. I’m not sure if the script is 100 per cent accurate but if it is, non-Cabinet MPs don’t seem to have much to occupy their working day. 


The Politician's Husband begins on BBC Two at 9pm on Tuesday 25th April



Source: The Lady


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