LShepard-1 Review of A Very British Coup

A Very British Coup (1988)

Brilliant and scary. It should be shown before any national election.

[10/10 · 21 February 2006]

The quality of the acting is very high. The pacing is excellent, there are no slow moments. It is interesting to watch the interplay between the Americans and the British, especially regarding the Blair government's position on Iraq, even in light of the famous Downing Street memorandum. One must listen to the interview with the author of the original book, who now serves in the UK government, to see how chilling this story is. I would rank it along side the excellent film The Siege, which was a prescient view of NYC under attack pre-9/11. Several years later there were BBC/Masterpiece Theatre stories about UK politics which starred Ian Richardson. This work ranks with those productions. American films, like The Manchurian Candidate or Seven Days in May have some of the same power but seem much simpler in their construction. One could make a fascinating film about the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention, or the 2000 Florida recount drama.