The actor chosen to play the young Blair is a sub-Rory Bremner impersonator (the worst sub-Rory Bremner weak caricature award goes to Bill Nighy in the Constant Gardener).
This show, through interviews of those who knew the young Blair and young post-counterculture middle-class hippie set that he flirted with in London after finishing school, chases and flirts with a poignant portrayal of a man who had yet to find himself but never quite fitted in with his peers, before launching himself into something more respectable. One does not doubt that Tony Blair the nascent rock promoter did not cut a convincing figure amongst those he ingratiated himself with, but it is still a shame that this semi-dramatisation descends into a crude parody, when at the very least there are so many Withnail and I-ish 'we failed to paint it black' buttons that could be pressed for our satisfaction
This show, through interviews of those who knew the young Blair and young post-counterculture middle-class hippie set that he flirted with in London after finishing school, chases and flirts with a poignant portrayal of a man who had yet to find himself but never quite fitted in with his peers, before launching himself into something more respectable. One does not doubt that Tony Blair the nascent rock promoter did not cut a convincing figure amongst those he ingratiated himself with, but it is still a shame that this semi-dramatisation descends into a crude parody, when at the very least there are so many Withnail and I-ish 'we failed to paint it black' buttons that could be pressed for our satisfaction
