Radio Times: Review by:; David Crawford

The first in the fifth series of Jonathan Myerson’s exceptional drama finds the Conservative Prime Minister Simon Laity (Damian Lewis) facing a number of challenges.

The Scottish parliament has legalised assisted suicide and a couple en route to the Dignitas clinic in Glasgow have been arrested in Northumberland; the Crown Prince of West Tuvalonga is posing a diplomatic problem after being apparently snubbed by Simon’s partner Alan at a state dinner; and the chief strategist is promoting an MP’s idea for an international six-day week.

Myerson keeps all the plates of the various plot lines spinning successfully, striking a fine balance between the absurd, the tragicomic and the serious, and interjecting a few telling gags from time to time. A blunder caught on a still open mic remind you of anyo

About this programme

1/4. New series. By Jonathan Myerson. The political satire about life inside Downing Street returns. Prime Minister Simon Laity faces bad press after a couple are arrested on their way to an assisted dying clinic. However, the media is the least of his worries when he is forced to appease a touchy foreign dignitary, and dash the hopes of a strategist planning to reform the international calendar. Starring Damian Lewis.