It is an interesting evolution to see how politics is played out in TV fiction. There was a time, of course, when it was either very sinister with dark coups and manipulative intrigues or just very silly.
The brilliance of the writing in Yes, Minister obscured the fact that it designed politicians and their civil servants to be portrayed as the led and the leaders, the silly arse tendency, more in common with ‘Up Pompeii’ than real politics.
Then of course the realist school of political intrigue, often written by real politicians that gave a more cutting edge; the series that former MP Chris Mullin wrote, A Very British Coup about the left wing Prime Minister, Harry Perkins comes to mind. One of Perkins’ campaigns was to end the near monopoly control of the media by wealthy tycoons. A lesson there, perhaps?
The other significant British contribution was House of Cards, the dark intrigues of Francis Urquhart on his way to the Premiership. It was written by Michael Dobbs, a leading Conservative strategist.
The most memorable excursion into the murky world of political intrigue was the American series set in the White House, Aaron Sorokin’s West Wing. How could anyone resist the charm and all round goodness of President Bartlett. However West Wing was of its time and it echoed the Camelot days of JFK and presaged the Obama Presidency. It was almost too good to be true.
And so to Borgen, the Danish series that has everything any political geek could wish for. A woman Prime Minister, Birgitte Nyborg, leader of the Moderate Party heads a coalition of the centre-left. Now there’s an idea !
Her party can be identified with the real Danish Social Liberals, a centre left grouping. In her coalition are the Labour Party, The Greens and Solidarity, all with very real Danish counterparts, which Danes can identify with.
There are, in the series, a number of cameos that are too accurate; the elderly Labour Minister being sacked from the cabinet looks ruefully at the tattoo on his arm, he had once been a dock worker and he was expressing how proud he had been to have been a cabinet minister: “But I never thought I would be the last worker in the Labour Party”
I wonder how many sharp intakes of breath were heard on the green leather opposition benches in Westminster?
There was the nasty xenophobic crass leader of the Freedom Party, a stereotype of every far right leader Europe has thrown up since the last war. Borgen takes on the real dilemmas that modern politics creates: What to do about troops in Afghanistan? Global warming? The debt crisis?
Birgitte is an idealistic politician forced to make compromises. Her problems with the young woman who leads the Solidarity Party, whose past includes a brush with terrorism, and the young leader of the Green Party, Amir, whom the right wing press discovered had a penchant for old gas-guzzling cars!
Underlying Borgen throughout is the tension between the need for transparency and the realities of spin.
If fiction can ever shape our perception of the complexities of modern political thought, then it is in The Castle that reality will be found. As Birgette struggles with the little matter of holding her family together, welding a fractious coalition together and running a country, then even a cynic like me can have some sympathy for Cameron.
But then all things considered I believe Birgette Nyborg would make a better job!
And the silhouetted photograph in the title sequence of Birgette framed in the office window... once again JFK in the White House.