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28 March 2015updated 12 Oct 2023 11:00am

The Coalition will be televised: behind the scenes of Channel 4’s drama about May 2010

James Graham’s film about the formation of the coalition is an impressively human portrayal of constitutional torment.

By Anoosh Chakelian

James Graham’s captivating drama about the coalition’s formation starts off as satire and ends as an opera. It is the young playwright’s eye for detail and evident reams of source material that allow for such an astute commentary, and human portrayal, of how the Tory/Lib Dem coalition was cobbled together in 2010.

Those now infamous “five days in May” when the hung parliament flung our political leaders into pressured negotiations are the perfect basis for a tragicomedy. Fatal flaws, sad endings, and tentative beginnings make for a gripping rendition of a drama that took place at the time firmly behind closed doors.

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