The Amazing Mrs Pritchard
Interview with Sally Wainwright
At the last election, acclaimed writer Sally Wainwright was seriously fed-up. In common with many voters, she was so exasperated because she felt she had no one to vote for. But Sally didn't let the sense of despair get her down for long. In typically inspired fashion, she drew on her sense of disillusionment with conventional politics to create The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, a compelling new serial which is one of the highlights of 91Èȱ¬ ONE's autumn schedule.
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Sally, one of the UK's leading TV dramatists, recalls: "At the last election, I got into a real state because I thought the parties were all as bad as each other. I just didn't know who to vote for. At first, I thought I wouldn't vote at all – I know that's a terrible thing to do, but I just felt that no politicians were speaking my language.
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"Then all of a sudden, I thought instead of being so apathetic, I should stand for Parliament myself. In the end, though, I couldn't do it because I'm just not tough enough. However, that did give me the idea for The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. I thought it would be great fun to write an epic story with a central character who was prepared to stand up and point this out.
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"I hit on the notion of someone so disillusioned with normal politics that she decides to do something about it and go into it herself. I thought that was a great starting point for a drama. Also, the fact that at the beginning this character knows nothing about politics is a good way to take the audience with you."
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And so it has proved. The Amazing Mrs Pritchard makes for coruscating entertainment. The premise of the new six-part drama is deceptively simple. A supermarket manager called Mrs Ros Pritchard (played by the wonderful Jane Horrocks), tired of feeling let down by conventional politicians, decides to stand for Parliament. Before you can say "landslide", she is heading a dynamic party called the Purple Alliance, which she leads all the way to No. 10 Downing Street.
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According to Sally, "Mrs Pritchard is bold enough – or some may say daft enough – to stand for Parliament on the assumption that she can do just as badly as any of them but at least she will be honest".
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With her refreshing, straight-talking approach, Mrs Pritchard represents a breath of fresh air in the stale atmosphere of established politics. "Politics is traditionally bound up in self-interest, if not corruption," observes Sally, responsible for such hits as The Taming Of The Shrew, The Canterbury Tales, Sparkhouse, At 91Èȱ¬ With The Braithwaites, and Jane Hall.
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"All politicians use double-speak. When they're asked a straight question, they can never give a straight answer. On the Today Programme, they will never answer a question directly. It's like a game to show how clever they are by undermining a question rather than answering it.
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"This drama is about Mrs Pritchard being able to say, 'a good reason to vote for me is that I'm not a politician, I'm not corrupted and I'm not part of the Establishment.' Still, she's amazed when she gets elected!"
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Mrs Pritchard's campaign builds up a head of steam, Sally continues, "when by a sheer fluke, she manages to get a slot on Newsnight. After that, housewives and mums phone up and say 'I want to join you.' Soon, backbenchers and frontbenchers are defecting to the Purple Alliance.
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"She strikes a chord because she says it like it is. Mrs Pritchard starts with no political agenda. She just gets people together and knocks out a manifesto. They're common-sense policies. Borrowing from the Left and stealing from the Right, she's at the centre of the centre, the middle of Middle England. What she achieves is like a revolution. It's bigger than even Tony Blair's landslide in 1997."
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Sally was delighted when Jane Horrocks accepted the title role in the drama. "She's a marvellous actress," the writer beams. "People will absolutely believe that she is Mrs Pritchard. On one level, she seems very ordinary, like a woman who runs a supermarket. But on another, she has steel and nous and inner resources. She also possesses massive intelligence – she's sharp and bright and deep enough to take on a role of such huge responsibility."
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Through the figure of Mrs Pritchard, Sally is also able to explore the potential impact on politics if it were feminised. "I thought this would be an exciting new way to look at politics," the writer says. "There are so few women in politics because it's such a macho, Machiavellian game.
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"Women are more straightforward – they don't play the power games that men do. Those women who are in politics have to be very tough because they have to fit in with the very male environment. They have to adopt a masculine mentality."
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With the recent wrangling over when Tony Blair will quit as Prime Minister and who will succeed him, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, which was written before these latest shenanigans, looks remarkably prescient. "It does seem timely now," Sally affirms, "and looks like we're jumping on the bandwagon. But we're not – I wrote this long before the latest struggles at the top of New Labour. It came out of my deep disillusionment with Labour over what Tony Blair said about Iraq.
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"After that, you felt you just couldn't believe what he said. I felt really disappointed because I liked him. Think of the exhilaration and the optimism on the night he was elected in 1997. Remember all those joyful people singing Things Can Only Get Better outside the Festival Hall in London? In so many ways, Tony Blair's done a fantastic job, yet what he did over Iraq was inexcusable. He's pissed on his chips."
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She adds with a laugh: "I hope The Amazing Mrs Pritchard is still timely when this goes out. A week is a long time in politics. I hope Tony Blair hasn't gone by then – that would spoil it!"
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If Sally has one hope, it is that the drama might help "re-engage people in thinking about politics. We shouldn't feel disenfranchised from the whole process. Writing this made me realise just what a bubble politicians live in.
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"That was only reinforced by the recent plots and upheavals in New Labour. Because they live in the self-contained Westminster Village, the Labour MPs couldn't see that they were doing exactly what the Tories used to do. It's depressing that they're so cut off from people. Mrs Pritchard picks up on that and passes a bill to move Parliament to Bradford."
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Sally says that The Amazing Mrs Pritchard is not a radical political satire in the vein of, say, the multi-award-winning 91Èȱ¬ FOUR comedy, The Thick Of It: "It's a fantasy idea about an idealistic world where this ordinary, sensible woman becomes Prime Minister. It could happen – at least I'd like to think it could!"
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Finally, what would Sally herself be like if she were Prime Minister? "I'd be the worst person to be a politician – I'd end up swearing at people! My heart would be in the right place, but you need so much more than that. You need a massive ability to communicate and compartmentalise, which I don't have. I'd be abysmal, but it's always nice to fantasise. Anyway, now I can pour it all into this drama!"
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