Mr. White Goes to Westminster

Whatever one's opinion of the Tatton by election and the subsequent media treatment of the Hamiltons, 'Mr White...' repays watching due to the (as usual) sharply observed and excellent performances of Bill Paterson, Celia Imrie and Dervla Kirwan. This is a well-written and perfectly-staged comedy about an era of UK politics that is now unfairly overlooked due to current, intellectually lazy, disillusion about politics and politicians. Celia Imrie particularly, as the battle-axe on the battle-bus, ferocious and yet also a sympathetic character, shows the strength of her appeal as an actor who makes her characters live on the screen.

'Mr White...' evokes the ending of an era of intellectually energetic satire (and of course plenty of cheap shots too) and Martin Bell and Spitting Image are now sadly an even more distant memory although at the time of writing, Spitting Image might be making a return to the small screen. Guy Jenkin, the writer, has a history of contributing to heavyweight satire such as Not the 9 o'clock News, Spitting Image and Rory Bremner, and his interest in the issues and characters underpin a funny script. Written soon after the similarly excellent 'Crossing the Floor', it's high time this was repeated/made available on DVD.