Talk:A Very British Coup

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Untitled[edit]

How are the endings of the novel and movie different? Drutt 11:38, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In the novel, Perkins is forced to resign and the public are none the wiser. In the TV serial, Perkins refuses to read out his resignation speech and instead tells the public about the blackmail attempt and calls a general election. The last scene occurs sometime after polling day, where we hear a BBC World Service news bulletin referring to 'the political upheaval of the past three weeks' and 'the authorities at Buckingham Palace' who are issuing statements on the constitutional situation, and then we hear a helicopter and some military radio chatter. Presumably we're meant to infer that Perkins' opponents had launched a straightforward military coup. --82.45.163.18 15:28, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The last scene actually occurs on the morning of polling day itself (hence the dialogue scene between Perkins and his mother, in which she predicts a landslide, and the large "Polling Station" sign outside), the implication being that the military is not going to permit the election to go ahead. 213.132.48.105 (talk) 16:20, 25 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Correct. Also the news bulletin fades out with reference to developments in Chile - presumably to make a parallel with the actual military coup against the leftwing elected government of Salvador Allende, which was very much a topic of contention at that time. Buistr (talk) 17:20, 25 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The details of the blackmail were also different. In the BBC version, it was a straight-up secret relationship, which presumably makes Perkins a bit more sympathetic. In the novel, the affair created a significant appearance of impropriety because Perkins' mistress subsequently married another fellow whose firm won a contract to construct nuclear power plants from Perkins' ministry. In addition, it wasn't just a case of Perkins resigning -- the novel's epilogue makes it clear that he was a broken man afterwards who played little role in politics. Wainwright -- Perkins' Labour nemesis -- becomes Prime Minister and reversed course on a number of key foreign policy issues (US bases, nuclear weapons, etc.) Jkp1187 (talk) 14:59, 16 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The 'improper' aspect of the relationship is also in the programme (Channel 4, not BBC) - instead of a nuclear power firm, the husband and wife ran an investment trust (contemptuously described as "ideologically sound" by Fiennes) which negotiated the loan from the USSR that saved Perkins's government earlier. Browne's blackmail material is forged Swiss bank statements showing large payments from the Kremlin to Perkins himself. Ou tis (talk) 21:11, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Searches[edit]

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

What is the evidence for saying that Tony Benn was personally popular in 1981? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.4.183.18 (talk) 11:51, 16 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Missing wikipedia pages[edit]

This is more a suggestion for new pages, and not directly related to the A Very British Coup page itself. While adding wikilinks referring to various posts & institutions, I found some don't have pages:

Bomb disposal examiner
military advisor to PM
Head of Security for the Prime Minister
Prime Minister's aide

I don't have the necessary knowledge to start these pages so offer them to the community... DadaNeem (talk) 15:07, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Plot[edit]

I've reverted to an earlier version of the brief plot description, as the one recently added and then reinstated contained far too much POV interpreation or outright inaccuracies. We should have a decent plot description, but of the novel; the first TV version can be dealt with in a "differences" section her,. or on a separate page. Nick Cooper (talk) 13:59, 11 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Really?[edit]

Was it really claimed in the programme that "Harry Perkins [...] is elected Prime Minister in March 1991"? Note that in the UK the PM is not elected, the Monarch invites someone to form a government. In a general election the populous elect their representative in the Commons, they do not elect anyone to office. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.52.255.206 (talk) 13:25, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

All very true, but that's not how British people people normally see (or refer to) the process. It's pretty well expected that the leader of the party that wins the most votes will become PM. with this in mind, it's perfectly understandable for the programme to use that sort of phrase.

Actually you don't need to get the most votes at all and I wouldn't say it was expected to be that way. In the last two elections the PM did get the most votes, but it was still the subject of much prior speculation that a Labour PM with less votes was a possibility. Also Churchill formed a majority government after losing the popular vote. I agree it's pedantic to say that the PM isn't elected though.

Character list[edit]

This contains the line "Fiennes, assistant to Browne". As there is no 'Browne' among the dramatis personae, it's hard to see any point to this inclusion. Grubstreet (talk) 04:25, 27 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

New Page for The Friends of Harry Perkins[edit]

I think that The Friends of Harry Perkins, the sequel novel to A Very British Coup, deserves its own Wikipedia page, complete with full plot summary. 2A00:23C7:D9A0:1201:4C9C:5FAA:CAFE:853 (talk) 18:29, 25 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]