The Trial of Tony Blair

[Hutch2004]

Good stuff. I'm amazed they made Blair as likeable as he was. I was expecting going into this a "spoof" of Blair's time in office, showing him as an insensitive git. Instead, he was naive, and charming. The Iraq war was made a big deal of, unavoidably, but Blair's choices were shown to be made from a genuine belief that he was helping the world. I actually found myself caring about the character, and seriously disliking Gordon Brown, although that could be due to the actor.

Robert Lindsay ("Britain's Best Loved Entertainer") was a perfect choice for the role, but the guy who played Brown was a bit rubbish. I don't know if he's ACTUALLY Scottish and just very irritating, or is just shit at accents, but he didn't really convince.

Good bit of TV that I wasn't intending to watch, but then found myself watching quite intently. I've got to say though, the dream sequences could have been got rid of. We KNOW Blair feels guilt about Iraq, we don't need a dream of him being faced with a hurt child to realise that. That's my only real complaint. As I said before, mostly I'm just shocked they made him as likeable as he was. It's a bit of a trend to bash Blair at every available opportunity (One of the reasons I'm bored of Have I Got News For You, Ian Hislops smirking little face just got too much), and it's nice to see something taking an opposing stance on that, and reminding us that for all his poor decisions, he's a human being, which I think it did quite nicely.

[Liam]

I'm probably going to watch it on Channel 4 on Thursday.

Edited January 15, 2007 by Liam Byrne