BBC Radio 4, August 16 2021

Tony is an ac-tor. Who’s given the role of a lifetime…

Martin Jameson’s new five-part series for Radio 4 kicks off with this slightly mad tale of Hugh Dennis’ Tony, an actor who goes for a part – and discovers that the audition involves him being asked to repeat the instructions given through an earpiece, but imbuing them with all the years of his experience to make them credible. Which, when you come down to it, would seem to be the role of politicians down the decades – think of Jim Hacker repeating the policy announcements created by Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes, Minister and its successor.

And it’s a politician that Tony Bland has to become. The hows and whys I’ll leave for you to discover in this short play, but when he starts to challenge his new reality, we delve deep into the murky world of conspiracy theories where everything is true, but nothing really is. Tony learns the true secrets of power in the most unlikely of places (will you ever see the glitterball the same again, I wonder?) although among the many things he finds, I’m slightly surprised there isn’t a writer sitting in a room desperately churning out plays about conspiracy theories for Radio 4, a la Philip Martin in season 2 of Gangsters…

Steve Bond and Adam Woodhams’ sound design is a key part of this, and director Nicolas Jackson ensures that all involved take everything absolutely seriously and sincerely.

Verdict: An enjoyable start to the series. 8/10

Paul Simpson