In this fictitious story of what goes on in Westminster’s Corridors of Power, the hero is an MP called Johnnie Byrne (Peter Finch).
He is first seen travelling down to London by train from his Yorkshire constituency after a General Election in which Labour has had a landslide victory.
An ambitious man, Johnnie has high hopes of an important post in the new Government and at station after station he gets out to buy the latest editions of the newspapers, eagerly scanning the lists of new Labour appointments for his own name. But gradually it becomes apparent that he has been passed over. He is bitterly disappointed.
On reaching London, he finds that his wife, Alice (Rosalie Crutchley), a member of the Communist Party, has cleared out of their flat, leaving him to be consoled by Mary (Billie Whitelaw), the girl living upstairs.
She takes him to a party where he meets a beautiful model called Pauline (Mary Peach), who warms to him.
Things warm up in the Commons too when other disappointed MPs want Johnnie to lead them in a little revolt against the Government.
He agrees to raise an awkward question aimed at forcing the Prime Minister (Geoffrey Keen) to resign, but when the moment for the showdown arrives Johnnie is not even in the House. He’s dallying with Pauline.
This earns him the unflinching hatred of another Left-winger (Donald Pleasence) who phones a trouble-maker in Johnnie’s local Labour branch and passes on some unpleasant information about the MP.
The result is that Johnnie has to return at high speed to his constituency to answer unspecified charges.
Johnnie Byrne
Peter Finch Fred Andrews
Stanley Holloway Pauline West
Mary Peach Roger Renfrew
Donald Pleasence Mary
Billie Whitelaw Tim Maxwell
Hugh Burden Alice Byrne
Rosalie Crutchley Dr West
Michael Goodliffe Charlie Young
Mervyn Johns Prime Minister Reginald Stevens
Geoffrey Keen Sydney Johnson
Paul Rogers Flagg
Dennis Price Henderson
Peter Barkworth Sheilah
Fenella Fielding Frank
Derek Francis
Director
Ralph Thomas
Video
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An ambitious man, Johnnie has high hopes of an important post in the new Government and at station after station he gets out to buy the latest editions of the newspapers, eagerly scanning the lists of new Labour appointments for his own name. But gradually it becomes apparent that he has been passed over. He is bitterly disappointed.
Johnnie Byrne
Alice Byrne
