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A tale of revenge

FrKurt Messick | Bloomington, IN USA | 05/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"`The Politician's Wife' is a fascinating drama, a revenge story of the first order, and a good rendition of post-Thatcher politics shortly before the fall of the Conservative Party, in part due to charges of corruption from being so long in office. This is a Channel Four production, also shown on the PBS series (heavily edited) `Masterpiece Theatre' in the United States.

This is a drama as a triptych. The first part is discovery, the second part failed reconciliation and aftermath, with the third part revenge. Flora Matlock is a perfect politician's wife - dutiful, full of charm and good works, reasonably stylish without being ostentatious, and definitely one not to outshine her rising-star ministerial husband. Coming from a family with a political background (her father is himself an almost-has-been in the Party, hoping to hitch himself to the rising Duncan Matlock), she was the `right sort' who could be counted on to act in such a way as was `meet and right so to do'. But Duncan has a secret that has just been revealed.

Flora discovers her husband's affair first from the media onslaught that occurs as a result of the press getting hold of the story. Duncan Matlock enlists the aid of the various party members, including Flora's own father, to pressure her to forgive him, not just for the sake of their marriage, but for the sake of the party; they hope that her party-political upbringing will help her to `see reason' in this process.

However, there is one party functionary who does not like what is going on (Mark Hollister, a middle-weight player in the party, who perhaps sees the fall of Duncan Matlock as his opportunity to rise in the party). Duncan Matlock had described his affair with Jennifer Caird in very generic, disarming terms to Flora. Hollister provides very graphic tape recordings of phone sex and other very prurient details that show Flora just how much Duncan was concealing. Flora decides to take on her husband, her husband's mistress Jennifer (who seems to thrive on the continuing attention both of Duncan and the media), and the whole party apparatus to get justice, a kind of justice she decides for herself.

The party functionaries are Machiavellian, but it turns out they are rank amateurs compared to Hollister (in the beginning) and what Flora Matlock becomes. She uses her history and their constant underestimation of her to good advantage, and soon has the upper hand in all dealings. Her revenge is indeed sweet in the end.


Acting and Directing

Juliet Stevenson does a remarkable acting job, going from the somewhat mousy to dramatically tough Flora Duncan in the space of three episodes. To play the two different characters would be acting ability enough; to carry forward both characters as a believable combination of both into one is great. Trevor Eve plays a great villain as Duncan Matlock, condescending and ambitious, deceitful and emotionally usurious. Indeed, one might wonder at the mismatch between Flora and Duncan given their different characters, save for one conversation between Flora and her father, where he claims that she had to know what he was like when she picked him for a husband, and she responds that she didn't pick him, he picked her. Another stand-out performance is by Minnie Driver, in her pre-Hollywood days, as Jennifer Caird, the outspoken mistress of Duncan Matlock. Anton Lesser also does a good job as Mark Hollister, playing the one who seems to care both what happens to Flora as well as to his own career.

This is definitely one of Graham Theakston's best - he has directed episodes in a lot of dramatic series (Cadfael, A Touch of Frost, Taggart, Dempsey & Makepeace) as well as a few other stand-alone projects (Sherlock, The Mill on the Floss). The pacing is good throughout, and the overall tone of the production is a good one, befitting its political theme.

The production won the BAFTA TV award, the International Emmy for drama, the Peabody Award, and the Writer's Guild of Great Britain award for dramatic writing, all in 1995 or 1996.



Spoiler Alert * * * Spoiler Alert * * * Spoiler Alert

Read no further if you don't want to know the nature and outcome of Flora's revenge.

My favourite scene has to be at the conclusion, while Duncan is sitting in the airport lobby seats, waiting for a flight to take him to a do-nothing graveyard post in the European Parliament (I recall the words of Jim Hacker, from `Yes, Minister', who described taking a European Parliament job as a dead-end for a political career - `You're reduced to having to start your own party if you ever want to make it back,' he said). On the television in the airport lobby is a broadcast of the election results for the parliamentary seat vacated by Duncan, and there is the victor, the radiant Flora Matlock, who has beaten her husband and the whole of the party machine at their own game. Indeed, she was by that point another Iron Lady in the making.

It is not unusual in politics for a widow to take the place of a politician who dies in office. This was true even before women began to regularly elected in their own right - it also speaks to the skill and lack of appreciation that politician's wives tend to get in general. In the United States, with Hillary Clinton now running for the same office her husband held (who had his own brush with infidelity), this drama seems like the right kind of piece. All things old are new again.
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Great Story!

Patty M | San Francisco-Bay Area | 10/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This movie proves what I've always said. "Revenge is sweet", and "Revenge is a pie best eaten cold". Found the actors great, the tale intriguling and the writing excellent. The British do it so well! Bravo to them."