Stephen Mangan

Stephen Mangan stars as the fugitive PM in this curiously joke-free 39 Steps homage. Stellar cameos from Jennifer Saunders as Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Planer as a spot-on Peter Mandelson add sparkle to an already impressive cast, but the script ducks into an alleyway every time it hears a gag coming. It doesn't seem to know what it is. Satire? Comedy? The performances are enjoyable, it's just a shame about the words.

Channel 4's 'Comic Strip' team satirises Tony Blair

Members of the Comic Strip crew, including Stephen Mangan, explain why they've got a certain ex-PM in their sights.

Purveyors of elegant pastiche for almost 30 years, The Comic Strip - aka writer/director Peter Richardson - mixed recent political history with British post-war thriller to produce The Hunt For Tony Blair.

Loosely based upon The Thirty Nine Steps, with a multitude of other film references thrown in for good measure, it told of how the former Labour prime minister became a fugitive from the law following the invasion of Iraq, WMD fiasco and attempted assassination of a stage memory man.
Atmospherically enhanced by the stark black and white photography, The Hunt For Tony Blair was characteristically well crafted, continually clever, crammed with comic details and energetically paced. Over an hour's duration the conceit was stretched pretty thin, subtlety frequently went as AWOL as Blair, and there was a noticeable absence of belly laughs, but The Comic Strip once again proved its pedigree as one of British TV comedy's truly class acts.

Stephen Mangan, managing a very creditable vocal impersonation, starred as a bright eyed, bushy tailed and cheerfully amoral Blair, who also provided a suitably disingenuous narration. No Alexei Sayle, alas, but the rest of The Comic Strip repertory company were present and correct in a variety of supporting roles. Even swathed beneath layers of costume and make up, Rik Mayall was instantly recognizable by his shameless overacting, but it was Nigel Planer who stole the show as an oleaginous Peter Mandelson or, as investigating officer DI Hutton (Robbie Coltrane) preferred to call him, "Squealer".

The only false note was when the story quite literally went off the beaten track to visit Margaret Thatcher's country retreat, shared with obsequious butler Tebbitt and a skeleton in the closet that turned out to be Denis. Jennifer Saunders played Thatcher, having already played Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher in The Comic Strip's Strike. In a perverse and curious case of life imitating art, the real Meryl Streep is soon to be seen as Thatcher in a feature film called The Iron Lady.

Nearly 30 years after their debut, the famous alternative comic troupe returns to Channel 4. Here, new boy Stephen Mangan plays Tony Blair as a film noir-style fugitive from justice, on the run after he's been accused of murder, in a piece that's like Hitchcock's 39 Steps crossed with Kind Hearts and Coronets-style black humour. Alongside him are the old regulars from The Comic Strip's previous films: Nigel Planer as Peter Mandelson, Robbie Coltrane as the detective on Blair's case, with appearances by Harry Enfield and Rik Mayall. Jennifer Saunders almost steals the show by playing Margaret Thatcher as a sexually predatory version of Miss Havisham. At the edge of acceptable taste - is it too early to make humour out of the death of Robin Cook? - "The Hunt for Tony Blair" puts a smile on your face even if there are not many laugh-out-loud moments. This is largely thanks to Mangan's turn as a smooth killer always ready with a voice-over justification about the "tough choices" he has to make, even when murdering an Old Labour homeless man. But despite its satirical digs at our old PM, Mangan's charming performance serves as a reminder of how likeable Blair once was.

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So as The Comic Strip has been revived, it makes a certain sense that the result is a decade-mashing melange which tells a warped version of Tony Blair's PM years, taking place in an anachronistic Britain which looks like the 1950s, ripping off The 39 Steps, Sunset Boulevard, The Godfather and, understandably, The Comic Strip themselves. Or rather, Peter Richardson, for though never reaching the same heights as his former colleagues, the director pretty much was The Comic Strip. He's brought back some of the old crew, including Rik Mayall, Robbie Coltrane, Nigel Planer and John Sessions.

For some, the intentionally over the top nonsense of Blair going on the run from 'Inspector Hutton of Scotland Yard' after faking evidence for the Iraq War - complete with lines like "It felt like the whole world was against me, apart from Barbara Windsor of course" - will not be enough to excuse the spoof from its nastier accusations: Blair's shown murdering John Smith and Robin Cook, while Thatcher (played by Jennifer Saunders, naturally) is a monstrous Norma Desmond luring him to bed.

Yes, this isn't exactly sophisticated satire, but it is surprisingly funny in places, with Stephen Mangan capturing Blair's wide-eyed insouciance. While it references the 50s visually, it actually evokes nostalgia for the 80s, when having a childish pop at the people in power felt dangerous - like it could genuinely change things. And the darkest comic line is a real one: "Hey, in the end, only God and history can judge me," says Tony.

Comic Strip Presents: The Hunt for Tony Blair, preview

Ed West previews Channel 4's The Hunt for Tony Blair, a new one-off comedy by The Comic Strip team, starring Stephen Mangan, Jennifer Saunders and Harry Enfield.

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