TV & Film

Political Fictions: political drama on screen and on the page

by Cory Hazlehurst / Mark Pack

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Latest episodes

The Thick of It Specials, with Sam Freedman (#21)

October 15, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

Top author and newsletter writer Sam Freedman joins us this week to talk about The Thick of It special episodes 'Rise of the Nutters' and 'Spinners and Losers'. We talk about how prescient the episodes are about both the rise of Gordon…
State of Play, Part 2 (#20)

October 8, 2026 · 44 min

Mark and Cory conclude their discussion of the classic TV series State of Play. Mark reports back on his correspondence with a cast member and also auditions for a role as a defence counsel, whilst they also talk about which elements of…
State of Play, Part 1 (#19)

October 1, 2026 · 47 min

Mark and Cory begin their two-part series on the classic TV series State of Play by discussing episode one. It begins with Mark recoiling in horror at the low score Cory intends to give it, almost causing an irreparable rift in Political…
The Lives of Others (#18)

September 24, 2026 · 1 hr 0 min

Mark and Cory discuss The Lives of Others, a modern classic about Stasi surveillance in 1980s East Germany. They start off talking about how to cope with a terrible dictatorship and how the film is about the power of art. However, they…
The West Wing: Let Bartlet Be Bartlet (#17)

September 17, 2026 · 43 min

Mark and Cory talk about a giant of American political drama for the first time this week, as they tackle The West Wing. They talk about Let Bartlet Be Bartlet, the nineteenth episode of series one. In it, Mark wonders if The West Wing is…

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The Death of Stalin (#16)

September 3, 2026 · 41 min

Mark and Cory talk about Armando Iannucci's 2017 black comedy The Death of Stalin. You can watch the film for its exploration of the nature of evil, think about whether the license that is taken with the truth is completely appropriate, or…
The Absence of War, with John Cotton (#15)

August 27, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min

Our normal programme is interrupted with an emergency episode! David Hare's play about a fictionalised version of the 1992 general election, The Absence of War, is on BBC iPlayer for a limited period. So before it goes, Mark and Cory talk…
Jeffrey Archer's 'First Among Equals' part 1, with Shane Whaley (#14)

August 20, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min

Cory and Mark are joined by Shane Whaley of the Spybrary podcast this week. Shane has picked for us to watch First Among Equals, a prime time ITV political drama from the 1980s. As its episodes total up to 494 minutes, this time we're…
The Division Bell Mystery, with Elinor Taylor (#13)

August 6, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

Mark and Cory are joined by Elinor Taylor for our first book! It is Ellen Wilkinson’s The Division Bell Mystery, a political thriller disguised as a golden age detective story. It is written by one of the country's first female MPs and is…
Mr Smith Goes to Washington, with Aidan Byrne (#12)

July 23, 2026 · 1 hr 16 min

Aidan Byrne joins Mark and Cory to watch the classic Mr Smith Goes to Washington. It's a film full of shameless emotional manipulation, especially from some of the children in it. They marvel at the performances of Jimmy Stewart, Claude…
Offside (#11)

July 9, 2026 · 44 min

To coincide with the men's football World Cup, Mark and Cory talk about the 2006 Iranian film Offside, about a group of Iranian women who disguise themselves as men to sneak into a stadium. Mark gets to deploy some football knowledge, they…
Brexit: The Uncivil War (#10)

June 25, 2026 · 56 min

To mark ten years since the Brexit referendum, Cory and Mark talk about James Graham's TV movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Brexit: The Uncivil War. They talk about the ability of Mark Gatiss to chew scenery without actually being on…

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About the show

Join Cory Hazlehurst and Mark Pack as they digest some of the best - and some of the worst - depictions of politics in fiction: film, TV and even the occasional book. What political advice is smuggled into these stories and how do they impact on what people think about politicians today?