Set in the unspecified 1980s, after Margaret Thatcher's stint as Britain's Prime Minister, A Very British Coup (1988) posits a landslide Labour Party victory in the general election, catapulting socialist candidate Harry Perkins (Ray McAnally) to the position of Prime Minister. While Perkins is welcomed by the working people of Britain, who are eager for a shakeup in government, his plans to wrest control of the nation from the conservative ruling class and international vested interests make a handful of the ultra-powerful very nervous indeed. From the very beginning of his term, Perkins finds himself faced with opposition and complications at every turn from this shadowy enemy.

The only thing that I actively disliked about A Very British Coup was its jumpy editing style, which seemed unnecessarily abrupt. On the other hand, there's nothing that really hooked me, either. A Very British Coup strikes me as the kind of film that will appeal to viewers who are aficionados of political intrigue; for those who aren't fascinated by politics for its own sake, the story unfortunately have much to recommend it.

The film asks viewers to be interested in the larger conspiracy and political situation above and beyond the specific characters. At least, that's my assumption, as the film doesn't put a whole lot of effort into creating a cast of characters whom we can relate to as real people. It's not that the acting is bad or the characters stereotyped: in fact, they seem like realistic, ordinary people, the kind of people we might really find working in government. The shadowy, threatening conspirators are not mustache-twirling baddies, but simply powerful people who will stop at nothing to preserve their position. This sounds good so, actually, so why are the characters so forgettable?

My theory is that they're forgettable because the film doesn't bother to make them memorable. The individual characters just aren't very important. Harry Perkins is the only real exception, and even so, we don't really get a sense of his interior life, his motivation, or his ideals. We get a media's eye look at his position; the film is more concerned with his position in government and what he will do there, than with making any personal connection. And so it goes with the other characters as well, except that we don't stick with any of them enough to make them even as memorable as Perkins.

One scene midway through the film offers an accidentally insightful commentary about why I had a hard time getting involved in what was going on. One character is explaining to Perkins about a potential conspiracy, illustrated by writing various names on a chalkboard and drawing lines to show their connections to each other. I didn't recognize a single name. Not one. As you can imagine, the effect of the scene was lost on me, along with the effect of the rest of the film as Perkins deals with the conspiracy. Obviously the filmmakers believed that somehow, by hearing a name mentioned once or twice or meeting a character once, I'd remember the name and the character. Well, I always have trouble with that, and A Very British Coup makes things worse by taking a very cavalier attitude toward introducing characters. There are quite a lot of them, it's never particularly clear which ones are important and which ones aren't, and they are frequently not identified in their scenes (assuming, I think, that we recall them from a previous brief scene).

In hindsight, I should have been tipped off by the inclusion of a glossary of characters in the DVD insert. This is never a good sign, as far as I'm concerned: it should be possible for an attentive viewer to follow a story, even a complicated one, without a cheat sheet.

A Very British Coup seems in the end to be a film about the political system, more than about Harry Perkins and his party in particular. For viewers who are particularly fond of political intrigue in general, and are familiar with British political history of the 1970s and 1980s in particular, A Very British Coup undoubtedly has layers that weren't apparent to me. As a political thriller on its own merits, though, it left me cold.

The 153-minute miniseries is presented on DVD in three equal parts. 

The DVD

Video

A Very British Coup is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio transfer. Overall, I was unhappy with the transfer quality. The noise level is high throughout, and in dimly lit scenes it's particularly obtrusive. Some print flaws show up, and there's a definite jittering motion evident in the image at times. Colors are slightly muddy, with skin tones a little too much toward the orange at times, and contrast is poor throughout the film. Edge enhancement is one flaw that's not too much of a problem, but that's not saying much.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 track falls a bit short of average. Dialogue is a bit flat and not always as clear as I'd like it to be, though it does sound natural and is never harsh or distorted. The balance between the dialogue and the music portion of the track is not perfect, however. The background music tends to be too loud, particularly in music-only scenes, in comparison to scenes with conversation.

Extras

An audio-only interview with the author of the original book, Chris Mullin, will be of interest to fans of the film. Cast filmographies are also included on the DVD, and the insert contains a glossary of characters.

Final thoughts

A Very British Coup won a number of awards, so I'm sure that there are viewers who are looking forward to seeing it on DVD, although I found it to be not particularly engaging. I suggest this DVD as a rental for both fans and new viewers, though, because even those who already know that they like the film won't necessarily like the lackluster video and audio transfer.