Non-stop party animals

I’ve just been watching the new BBC drama Party Animals.

Written by the team behind This Life, I had high hopes. The thing is I can’t remember the last time I watched 42 minutes of a film or programme and still had no grasp of who any of the characters were. I’m normally insanely irritated by the lovely Sarah, who can often watch 2 hours of films and ask who the protagonist is, but I have to admit defeat with this one. The sorrowful synth-string music is trying to evoke emotion in me as I watched one of the characters die in the street, but I’m not sure confusion was what they had in mind. Seriously, I had no idea who he was.

Here’s another top moment. Two guys are awaiting an announcement on who gets to manage a contract. “And the winner is…”. Thank God the other guy congratulated him by name, or I’d have been none the wiser. It’s scripted by a writer from Spooks, but I’m not watching that going, “so he’s MI5 then, that one with the Arabian accent?”.

Luckily there’s a welcome distraction in the setting. I love the pop art of Margaret Thatcher on the walls of the Tory offices. I want it. I want the T-shirt. I want the Ikea print. I want it as my screensaver. Both PC and mobile. Lovely. A bit of editorial comment from the writers maybe?

A secondary game can be found in spot the character-switch. The Labour researcher is Miles from This Life with less confidence, Raquel Cassidy has Millie’s work ethic, Geek researcher’s brother is Andrew Lincoln’s ‘Egg’, and Tory sex-kitten is Anna in Millie’s body, whilst everyone seems to have the social ethics of the one who buggered off to New Zealand so I can’t remember his name.

I’d love to think that’s what life in Westminster is like, wooden-lined corridors with offices full of History graduates beavering away at fax machines and PC’s trying to get policies sorted. The weirdest part is that the BBC has had a blog created for it. ‘Village Vermin’ is seen on the programme, it’s a machine to spread rumour and to faciliate plot changes quickly. But they’ve actually done it. The power of the blog to change the world. Or certainly the fortunes of a telly programme..