The Trial of Tony Blair

This fantasy was conceived before British Prime Minister Tony Blair actually quit politics, so the scenario envisaged might already put some people off, due to the fiction involving Blair being in power for a few more years before quitting. In any case, it works quite well as a "What if...?" story, or alternative world story.

In this movie, Blair announces his retirement and looks to find a role for himself in business and society. He instead has to face charges that he is a war criminal. So, the trajectory of the plot is Blair starting out as Prime Minister, and then ends with him about to face trial on war crime charges. Thankfully, no outcome to the trial is envisaged...you can let your imagination run free!

Imbetween, we see Blair as a man haunted by the ghosts of his actions...literally. A plus for this story is how Blair is portrayed as a man who lives in his own world...he tries to shut out the reality of his situation the best he can. He and his wife, Cherie, have, amusingly, a foul mouth, which get quite a work out when reality and Blair's deluded fantasy refuse to mix.

There is some delicious irony in the plot concerning Tony's past and the situation he now finds himself in. The satire is quite pointed as well, at times. Some of the scenes are painfully embarrassing to watch, like Tony's successor Gordon Brown, on the campaign trail...and the same goes for his conservative opponent...they both really make you squirm uncomfortably.

There were some laugh out loud moments in this film, but it is mostly 'dry' humour. To its credit, it also has a very strong basis in plausibility. Just today, I think, I read in the news that there are moves afoot to release documents on Blair's cabinet discussions on whether the Iraq war was actually legal, or not.

The slant of this movie is very left-wing, so if you buy Blair's "third way" spiel and his motives for supporting the US in the Iraq war, you may take umbrage that Tony Blair is even considered to be a war criminal.

This satire is very amusing and shows how fickle politics and politicians are, however the show most not be taken too seriously. If you keep in mind the insane nature of the story, you may very well enjoy it as much as i did. Robert Lindsay is brilliant as Blair, but then he is brilliant in almost all of his roles, he does however nail Blair when showing him as his grinning media self, the portrayals of Gordon Brown and of David Cameron are also very funny, though the physical likeness of both is questionable the voices and actions are perfect.

The humour is biting throughout but then again so is much of the political comedy in Britain. If you are prepared to take this show at face value i am sure you will thoroughly enjoy it. I cannot wait for the second installment.

This fantasy was utter garbage. I thought Michael Moore cornered the market on ridiculous anti-government movies, but this one was far worse than anything he ever did. No wonder critics of the British media complain it's driven by tabloid journalism. This movie is a left-wing loony's greatest fantasy come to life on the big screen. Anyone even slightly to the right of such rabid Bush-bashers should be appalled it ever got funding to be made. I'm sure it will do well in Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea, though. It's hard to believe that in these days of insane Muslims blowing up innocent commuters there is anyone in the U.K. who thinks Britain should surrender in the war on terrorism. I guess it's no longer the country I admired for standing alone against the Nazis nearly 70 years ago. All hail Neville Chamberlain and the pathetic policy of appeasement!

As if to prove that Michael Sheen doesn't have a monopoly over the role of Tony Blair, Robert Lindsay gives a magnificently comic performance in this very funny satire set three years in the future when Tony finally decides to stand down. Hilary Clinton is in the White House, George Bush is in rehab, ('he was found comatose on his ranch'. 'I'm surprised anyone noticed'), and the far from charismatic Gordon Brown scrapes through the General Election with a majority of two. It is then that Gordon bows to international pressure and allows Tony to be extradited to the Hague to stand trial for war crimes. Turning on the news immediately after watching this and hearing that one of the serving Prime Minister's closest advisors had been arrested in the 'cash for honours' inquiry only shows how prescient Simon Cellan-Jones' satire really is and how hard it may be to separate fact from fiction.

Alastair Beaton's script is a joy. It's clever, pertinent and side-splittingly funny but it is Lindsay's barn-storming, grand-standing performance as the deluded Blair that lifts this into a class of it's own. He is supported by a wonderfully straight-faced Phoebe Nicholls as Cherie, who chooses to distance herself from her liability of a husband and by Peter Mullan's blank and insipid Gordon Brown. Already a contender for best single programme of the year.

The year 2010 has come and long gone without these events transpiring, and setting it up as a future that never was ensured the movie would quickly render itself outdated, which is only one of many reasons that it was doomed to fail from the outset. The whole conceit of the movie is on that list, as it's utterly ridiculous that these events would occur in reality, and it is so hamfisted that it doesn't even work as satire. I'll confess I'm from the other side of the pond than most viewers and reviewers of the piece, but I appreciate a lot of British television series and movies, with this obviously not counted among them. Putting the special relationship on trial in an intelligent way that explored all of the complexities therein could have been compelling, but the makers of the movie settled for a simplistic version of Bush as the greatest of evil and anyone standing with him the same. It borders on apology for terrorists, as if it was unholy war started by the US that prompted terrorist attacks rather than the reverse, and it paints the problem as Blair being in thrall to Bush, never confronting Britain's past in the region, which preceded US involvement by centuries. It's more straw man argument than movie, and the missed opportunities for something more are reason enough to make this a must-miss piece of political theater and propaganda.