Nicola and Peter Mannion go head to head on Richard Bacon's Radio 5 phone-in show. Nicola does not do well with her idea of "being inspired out of poverty" and Mannion, despite Phil's sycoph... Read allNicola and Peter Mannion go head to head on Richard Bacon's Radio 5 phone-in show. Nicola does not do well with her idea of "being inspired out of poverty" and Mannion, despite Phil's sycophantic praise, fares no better. Tucker and Pearson, listening in, decide they must come to ... Read allNicola and Peter Mannion go head to head on Richard Bacon's Radio 5 phone-in show. Nicola does not do well with her idea of "being inspired out of poverty" and Mannion, despite Phil's sycophantic praise, fares no better. Tucker and Pearson, listening in, decide they must come to the rescue of their charges and, after exchanging insults and blackmail threats regarding ... Read all
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOne of the callers to the radio show is named as 'Tina from Weymouth'. Tina Weymouth is one of the founding members and bassist of new wave rock band Talking Heads.
- Quotes
Malcolm Tucker: Here's the fucking thing. Nobody talks about fucking dodgy donors, okay? Because it makes everybody look bad.
Stewart Pearson: Okay, I'll go with a different angle, then. How do you think it would land with your female voters if they were to find out that Tom Rudd forced his secretary into having an abortion?
Malcolm Tucker: That was her own personal choice and by the way, it wasn't his.
Stewart Pearson: Wow! So him paying for that private clinic, then, was just because he's such a nice man?
Malcolm Tucker: He IS a nice man. What about your nice man at central planning, eh? The one who got a bit carried away and fucking slapped his kids about a little bit too much? Fucking broke the skin! But he wasn't such a nice man, was he? But I suppose that's just part of your common sense checklist, yeah. All they need is a good slap, and do please remember to leave your fucking rings on!
Stewart Pearson: You go check your facts, Malcolm, that was a domestic accident and nothing more.
Malcolm Tucker: Domestic accident, yeah, 'cause he's got fucking hands the size of fucking doors!
Stewart Pearson: Oh, you want to talk about hardmen, Malcolm, yeah? Now, I know you've got to be hard to be a chief whip, but really, coke dealing at university?
Malcolm Tucker: Oh! Please, please!
Stewart Pearson: Hey, am I right in thinking he's now godfather to one of the PM's kids, yeah?
Malcolm Tucker: Listen, you know what I have got at the back of my fucking filing cabinet? I have got a fucking photograph that I've been waiting for a fucking rainy day to show everyone, which is a photograph of your fucking shadow chancellor at one of his fucking parties dressed up in fucking bra, suspenders and fucking blackface! What's his defence going to be, hey, when I email that to the fucking Sun? "Oh, well, I am just de shadow chancellor."
Stewart Pearson: Malcolm, he won't have a defence because you haven't got that picture because that didn't happen.
Malcolm Tucker: I have!
Stewart Pearson: However, I do have a statement from a rent boy...
Malcolm Tucker: Oh, that's very useful for you. You can claim that against your expenses, can't you?
Stewart Pearson: Oh, yeah, funny, very funny.
Malcolm Tucker: And you'll get that for free. Is that one of the fucking perks of the job?
Stewart Pearson: No, listen, his statement says he will swear that one of your prominent back-bench MPs paid him to shit on his chest.
Malcolm Tucker: Don't!
Stewart Pearson: Right, look, this is out of order, okay? Here's the deal. We both, both make statements saying that our guys in there, they were not in possession of all the facts. Hmm? But we're looking into it.
Malcolm Tucker: You'd do that? Hang your own guy out to fucking dry?
Stewart Pearson: What? Peter Mannion, MP? Yeah! Old guard? We're not sending him to DoSAC to fatten him up, we're putting him out to pasture, Malcolm.
Malcolm Tucker: We should just go home.
Stewart Pearson: We can do that. We can just seal this in. Contain the toxicity. Chernobyl FM.
Malcolm Tucker: I mean, you carry on like this and I might not find you utterly fucking contemptible.
- ConnectionsReferences Blue Peter (1958)
Mannion is also blind-sided by Bacon who wants to focus on big bonuses for fat-cat City bankers. The problem is that many of Mannion's friends work in banking and he is going to find it difficult to criticise them publicly.
The respective spin doctors - Martin Tucker for Murray and Stuart Pearson, Mannion - listen in at their offices and soon realise that their Ministers are going way off-message to the point where both of them have to go to the studio and get them back on focus.
On a slightly more domestic front both Emma and Ollie (both of whom work for their respective Ministers) are eating at home together while listening to the radio broadcast. Emma is seriously focused on what is being said by Mannion, while Ollie is trying for a more romantic evening in order to strengthen their relationship and failing miserably.
An intriguing if somewhat claustrophobic episode. It was good to see both Mannion and Murray being interrogated by an independent source (Bacon) rather than being back at the office and protected by their staff and the likes of Pearson and Tucker.
This match-up is even more intriguing since Murray wants to help people out of poverty but hasn't got a clue how to do it; and Mannion who wants to defend his extremely rich friends with City bonuses - one extreme to the other.
But because something like 80% of the episode takes place in the confining, oppressive BBC studio it does make for a rather intense but revealing 30 minutes.
It was also good to see both Tucker and Pearson go head to head over policy, even resorting to name calling and blackmailing. Which only underlines how untrustworthy and duplicitous they both are when pressed.
Richard Bacon, who plays himself, is also quite excellent as the passive/aggressive interviewer and gives equal measure of cynicism to both ministers.
A good episode, but the claustrophobic feel throughout is a bit much at times.
- Sonatine97
- Aug 4, 2022
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color