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According to the most recent Pew Survey, only 28% of Americans could correctly identify Gordon Brown as the current Prime Minister of Great Britain. Two Australians, former Prime Minister John Howard and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, tied for second with 5%, and current U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appeared in third with 4%. The rest of the respondents were smart enough just to admit that they didn’t know.
While, if they’d asked me, I would have been able to name Brown, that also would have been the absolute breadth and depth of my knowledge regarding British politics. This may or may not say something about the state of Americans’ political self-absorption, but at least it let me come into watching The Deal, a 2003 BBC television film and the prequel to the 2006 Oscar-winning film, The Queen (Best Actress, Helen Mirren), with a relatively clean slate. I haven’t seen The Queen yet—mostly because I think the events surrounding the death of Princess Diana have been milked quite enough by celebrity media that watching even a well-done film about them was just too much. Now, however, I’m intrigued enough to check it out, as well as the upcoming third film in the series.
The Deal opens as two recently elected members of Parliament are assigned a shared office. Gordon Brown (David Morrissey) is a Scot with a booming voice and a fiery, if a tad antisocial, disposition. Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), by contrast, is a soft-spoken and exceedingly friendly Englishman, quite supportive of Brown’s rising star within the Labour Party.
The sudden death of the leader of the party in 1994 provides an opportunity for Blair to step forward as the new, modern face of Labour. This comes as an unwelcome surprise to Brown, who had inferred a tacit agreement that his chance at the party leadership—and possibly the prime ministry—would precede Blair’s.
The title refers to the film’s climax, a meeting at the Granita restaurant in London, where it’s believed that Brown and Blair came to an agreement that Brown wouldn’t challenge Blair’s run for party leader, in return for later being named Blair’s successor. Brown did eventually become Prime Minister after Blair’s retirement—though many years later than the film suggests was part of that deal.
The lack of familiarity with the British parliamentary system does pose a small barrier to non-British viewers approaching the film, but the themes should be instantly recognizable. There’s a conservative government in decline, a more liberal party looking to ascend, and a handful of individuals trying to figure out who is best suited to make that transition a reality.
Having witnessed two incredibly contentious primaries in our own political system over the past year, it’s something of a relief to watch a film where the most sympathetic character is the one who agrees to patiently step aside when it appears that history is moving another direction.
All in all, The Deal is an interesting and understated portrayal of a how personal relationships and professional politics play out as a nation seeks to redefine itself.
