30 April 2010

Voiced by actors

I have to confess to not watching the third and final leader's debate last night. My head was a mush with election detritus, I'd been on a train to and from Manchester all day, and I needed a rest from Gillian Duffy and all the other stuff... and so I watched Wallander (the Swedish version) on iPlayer. Bad Series 2 hair dye job or not, it's still the best cop show on TV. I'm working on a screenplay for "Wallander with Wallander" where Kenneth Branagh's version and the Swedish chap are thrown together into a case via some sort of Doctor Who style parallel universe rift... I think it would work well, and is no dafter than say, Ashes to Ashes.

One thing that would also work well is if the election debates had been spoken by actors instead of the real politicians. You may remember the ludicrous Tory decision in the 1980s that when Sinn Fein representatives appeared on TV their words should be spoken by actors... I think that would have worked well.

Having not watched the debate I can't comment on the details, but it does seem interesting that on the supposedly left-of-centre Guardian, many journalists are now swinging behind Cameron rather than Clegg. For example, we have the previously reliable Jonathan Freedland saying that "barring an earthquake, David Cameron is on his way to No 10". Is this a damage limitation exercise after deciding that Nick Clegg was a flash in the pan, or something more sinister?

BBC poll of polls is continuing to show a Tory lead of around 5% - that may be enough to establish the Tories as the largest party but is unlikely to secure an overall majority. If the polls stay at this level - with the Tories on 34% , and Lib Dems and Labour on about 28-29 apiece - the key questions are:

(a) will the upsurge in the Lib Dem vote seriously hit the Tories in key Lib Dem - Tory marginals or is it going to be more of a hit to Labour in key LD-Labour marginals?

(b) will the leakage to minor parties (which seem to be on about 10% in most polls) seriously hit the Tories in seats that they would otherwise easily win? I'm thinking particularly of UKIP here.

My guess is that if the Tories emerge as the largest party Cameron may attempt a minority government rather than going into coalition with the Lib Dems. So as my good friend Clarkey tweeted last week, we may be looking at minority Tory govt rather than Labour-Lib Dem coalition.

That could actually be good news for Labour in the medium term as it would finally get Brown out of the way and enable the post-New Labour era to begin. If Mervyn King's assertion that the winner of this election will be out of power for a generation is correct - and that's a big if (surely the Tories will try to claim that they've inherited the economic situation from Labour and it's not their fault?) then Labour could actually be grateful for a narrow loss.

But right now, there's been, as Spinal Tap would say, "a bit too much fucking perspective". I've read too many badly written and hashed together columns, blogs and tweets (many of which were of my own making) and I'm finding it difficult to care anymore.

Maybe it's time to watch Mrs Berstram's DVD of Glee Volume 1: Road To Sectionals (or as I call it, Road To Sectioning, because you have to be mental to watch it.)

5 comments:

Hymnal said...

You're right about Wallander's hair dye. The Road to Sectionals is an unmitigated classic too.

red two said...

The voiceover's instigated by the Tories in Sinn Fein interviews were only marginally less ludicrous than the Day Today spoof which involved Sinn Fein spokespeople being forced to inhale helium before interview to "Subtract credibility from their statements"...

red two said...

that would be voiceovers. not voiceover's. sorry...

T.N.T. said...

I'd forgotten that Day Today spoof - absolute classic.

I'm just about to watch the Glee pilot. Seriously. Looking forward to it.

T.N.T. said...

I'm actually really enjoying "Road To Sectionals". Maybe this means I'm clinically insane as a result of the election campaign? ;-(