It would be difficult to play the story of John Stonehouse, the Labour MP who faked his own death in 1974, as tragedy; his downfall was entirely self-inflicted, and his suffering thereafter on the limited side (convicted of fraud, he served just three years in prison). But still, I hadn’t expected ITV’s new drama about him to be such a caper – and weirdly timely with it. To anyone who may be under the illusion that no greater wazzock than Matt Hancock has ever tip-toed the corridors of Westminster, I give you the former member for Walsall North, a buffoon beyond the imaginings even of a generation currently bracing itself for the next series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, in which you-know-who is poised to appear.
For this new year palate cleanser we must first thank John Preston, its writer. The territory of this series is purest catnip for him – Preston wrote the book on which the BBC’s A Very English Scandal, about Jeremy Thorpe, was based, though this is his first screenplay – and he duly finds rich opportunities for satire, irony and a certain kind of parochial shabbiness even in those rare moments when his disgraceful protagonist isn’t on screen. Informed by aides that Stonehouse’s mother was once a scullery maid, for instance, the newly elected Harold Wilson (an excellent impersonation from Kevin McNally), responds: “Better give him aviation, then” – and thus, for no better reason than his roots are working class, Stonehouse is appointed a junior minister.
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