Absolute Power

2 0 0 3 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes
2 0 0 5 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes

A savage swipe at the modern-day obsessions of celebrity and spin, Absolute Power presented life at Prentiss McCabe, the doyen of PR agencies, where – with an absolute lack of morals or ethical responsibility – the staff spun news stories to benefit their often loathsome clients: wife-beating entertainers, ruthlessly ambitious politicians, bad-boy footballers, duplicitous TV personalities and others.

The agency’s principal movers and shakers met every morning to discuss the day’s battles and were then allocated tasks according to their ability.

Junior recruits Cat (Sally Bretton) and Nick (Nick Burns) tackled the mundane stuff, while higher up the ladder Jamie (James Lance) and Alison (Zoe Telford) wrestled with trickier challenges.

The top strata comprised old-timer Martin McCabe (John Bird) – a confused and bewildered soul usually out of his depth who, in simpler days, had been a big wheel in the field – and the Prince of Darkness himself, Charles Prentiss (Stephen Fry) – a brilliant, soulless, manipulative, Machiavellian Svengali.

Charles was the puller-of-strings, the king of spin, a liar’s liar. He placed ludicrous stories in the tabloids, destroyed the reputations and careers of his enemies, and made heroes out of the lowest of the low.

Rarely have such a bunch of distasteful, unlikeable, morally bankrupt characters formed the basis for a British sitcom, for while other shows featured such characters among their number, here everyone was cut from the same cloth.

It was a classy-looking, smoothly-acted vehicle with a towering central performance from Stephen Fry and customary excellence from John Bird.

A number of real-life celebrities appeared briefly as themselves, including Gareth Hunt, Anneka Rice, Fern Britton, Richard Madeley, Paul Morley, Natasha Kaplinsky, Huw Edwards, Kirsty Wark and Phillip Schofield.

Absolute Power originated on Radio 4 in 2000.

Charles Prentiss
Stephen Fry
Martin MacCabe
John Bird
Alison Jackman
Zoe Telford
Jamie Front
James Lance
Nick Mayer
Nick Burns
Cat Durnford
Sally Bretton

Episodes

History Man | Pope Idol | Tory Woman | Mr Fox | Country Life | Burn and Crash || Identity Crisis | The Trial | Blood Bank | The Nation’s Favourite | Spinning America | The House of Lords