Anyone for Denis? (video)

Did You Know?

• The televised version added Robert Stephens, Nicky Henson, Roy Kinnear, Terence Rigby and Mark Kingston to the cast.
• The stage version had involved much doubling of parts, which the television version avoided by adding actors.

Plot

At Chequers, Denis Thatcher is too drunk to notice that a domestic staff member, Boris, is a Russian spy who has planted listening devices in the daffodils. More pressing to Denis is that the Rear Admiral acting as housekeeper has locked the drinks cabinet and hidden the key. While his wife is in Brussels negotiating a rebate from EEC heads, Denis invites his golfing and drinking friends, the Major and Maurice Picarda, for a weekend of festivities. Margaret returns unexpectedly, having invited the French, German and American envoys. Denis's two pals, extremely intoxicated, crash a car in the grounds and are pursued by security. US envoy Hamilton Thisp arrives but is knocked unconscious by Eric, the Thatchers' violent Special Branch man, who mistakes him for an intruder. Eric learns the real German and French envoys have arrived and detains Maurice and the Major as suspected terrorists. With domestic staff on strike, Margaret orders Denis to serve the envoys. The Major tries to escape down a drainpipe but is deterred by police dogs. Thisp regains consciousness and is again apprehended by Eric, who demands a urine sample. French envoy Vouvray, seeking closer European integration, finds Denis trying to drill through the drinks cabinet and promises alcohol in exchange for time alone with Margaret. Thisp enters with a beaker; Vouvray gives it to Denis. Denis tells Margaret to meet him at the bottom of the garden, then exits and is attacked by guard dogs.

Background

Richard Ingrams, Wells's collaborator on the columns, contributed the title and the idea of setting the action at Chequers but dropped out after initial involvement. Wells updated the play with topical jokes throughout writing and rehearsal, including introducing Roy Jenkins as the Thatchers' butler. The play opened at the Whitehall Theatre on 7 May 1981, directed by Clement, and ran until the following May. Wells continued altering the script to keep it current, though he found it impossible to write jokes about the Falklands War. A review of the published script called the play 'a wild success'; after the run, Wells said it was the first time he could remember not having a bank overdraft. The Thatchers' daughter Carol reviewed an early performance for The News of the World, condemning it as unfair to her father. Nevertheless, after speaking with Carol, the prime minister attended a gala performance on 12 July to raise money for the NSPCC and Jimmy Savile's appeal for Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Privately, both Thatchers found the play offensive, especially a scene where Denis mistakes a urine sample for whisky, but publicly Margaret called it 'most amusing' and 'Marvellous farce'. After the performance, the cast attended a drinks party at 10 Downing Street, where Wells found the real Denis Thatcher to be 'very beady, sharp dresser, humourless and rather hard'; when he changed his characterisation accordingly, Angela Thorne warned he would empty the theatre, so he reverted to the capering portrayal.

Reception

In The Telegraph the day after broadcast, Richard Last called it 'the funniest bit of television seen this Christmas', praising Angela Thorne's 'tour de force' in capturing the prime minister's mannerisms, speech inflexions, and handbag-clutching. He concluded that while unsure if it was respectful to treat leaders thus, it made life easier to bear. Herbert Kretzmer in The Daily Mail was positive but cooler, noting the farce's convoluted construction would not have disgraced Ben Travers or Brian Rix, and calling it a lively festive exhibit, though regretting it was not screened earlier. He singled out Thorne's impersonation as the most brilliant he had seen, capturing everything from head tilt to steel-edged voice.

Legacy

At the time of the broadcast, Wells discussed making a TV series with Thorne. On 23 December 1990, BBC One showed a half-hour film, Dunrulin, with the pair playing the Thatchers after her retirement. Planned as a pilot for six episodes written by Wells and Alistair Beaton, it had been made two years earlier but was put on hold for a less harsh depiction of the Thatcher children, then indefinitely; when screened after her resignation in November 1990, the BBC took legal advice and gave it minimal publicity. A.N. Wilson in the Sunday Telegraph called it 'tasteless and cruel' in light of events. Richard Last in the Daily Telegraph, while renewing praise of Thorne, felt the show might die for want of sustenance if extended. Hugh Hebert in The Guardian took the film as proof that Margaret Thatcher was 'definitively unfunny'.