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Customer Reviews of A Very British Coup

One sees how strings are pulled not only by established powers in England, but by Americans as well. While the body count isn't as high as the US' overthrow or Mossadeq in Iran in 1953 or Allende in Chile in 1973... or Diem in Vietnam in 1963... the overall threat to the PM's government is very real and very determined.

This series has important questions to ask about many aspects of power politics, and the questions apply to every government in the world. Who wields power behind the scenes? How is that power used and abused? Are nations such as England, Germany, and Japan effectively occupied nations that have grown accustomed to the presence of US troops there?

Could the scenario described in the series actually happen? Well, the PM of Australia stepped down in 1975 under heavy pressure from the US via the CIA and Australia's own pro-US president. You betcha this could happen.

Observing the development of events in Iraq in light of this series is very revealing: we can watch as powerful cliques maneuver to get position to control that nation for the foreseeable future. Question: what if the Iraqi PM decided to ask the US troops to leave on July 1? A very Iraqi coup?

I don't mean to pass judgment, but to ask the questions the series gave me. I despised the policies of PM Perkins, but I admired his brand of dirty pool. If you liked "Yes Minister" or "Yes, Prime Minister", you'll really go for this three-hour series.

By the way... when you get to the ending... ask yourself if that's really an ending. Hehehe... Very much like a Philip K. Dick sort of ending.

Glad To See It On DVD
This is a great movie, originally played in the US on PBS's "Masterpiece Theater" in the 1980's. It tells the story of Harry Perkins, a working-class politician and socialist, who is able to do the impossible and win a general election in Britain.

Once he meets with his ministers, he is determined to stick with his campaign promises (a novel idea!) and reform the country for the better. He wants to push the US military out of Britain, disarm the country's nuclear arsenal, and stop the IMF from holding the British economy hostage by using Soviet economic aid. He is also a true democrat -- trying to make the work of the government as transparent and accountable as possible, and making sure the public knows what's going on. This brings Perkins a great deal of popularity, to the detriment of his Tory (and moderate Labour) opponents.

But Perkins' Labour government is being undermined by the conservatives who run the media and government. There are many meetings in "smoke-filled rooms" by the media elite, who seem to closely mirror Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox News and the New York Post). Even with help from the CIA, they initially can't find any dirt on the Prime Minister -- though Perkins' Foreign Minister is caught having an affair and forced to resign. Eventually, they find that the Prime Minister did have a brief affair in the 1970's, and they try to blackmail him into resigning. But there's a twist ending that I won't spoil in this review.

The main character in this film reminds one of "Red Ken" Livingstone, the maverick leftist mayor of London. Livingstone was purged from the Labour Party by Tony Blair in 2000, only to be reinstated, because Blair's popularity is plummeting and Livingstone's is soaring. Seeing "A Very British Coup" is very much like seeing a documentary of what a Ken Livingstone would have to do in order to maintain his integrity in power.

I highly recommend this film, and I'm very happy to finally see it out on DVD.

C'mon, people, get a grip here!
"A Very British Coup" is a fine example of a left-wing fantasy.

It reminds me of nothing so much as the documentary about Enver Hoxa's Albania that was broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Company in the late 1980s. The conclusion of the CBC piece was that the happy Albanians were delighted with their dignified and unspoiled lives, blessedly free from the follies of either West or East. Alas, the problem with the CBC documentary was that within a month of its airing the happy Albanians were busy beating their way past Italian border guards trying to prevent their mad dash toward Western follies and excesses.

And so it is here. In this piece a Labour Party PM achieves power, immediately begins to institute a socialist agenda, kicks the US military out of Britain, and is all the while supported by the limitless financial resources of the Soviet Union. (Score it 0 for prophecy!) The program also shows virtually every leader of the Conservative Party as a thug at heart and without qualms about conspiring against virtuous lefties, even unto assassination. But there is no need to fear, for we are shown that the Cons are all paper tigers who can be overcome with a wave of the Beloved Leader's Benevolent Hand.

Gimme a break! This is for (bitter) laughs only.