The Comic Strip Presents, the comedy factory behind such greats as The Strike and Five Go Mad in Dorset, is back on Friday 14 October with a new 60-minute one off production – The Comic Strip Presents: The Hunt for Tony Blair. With productions dating back to 1982, the brand has been somewhat quiet of late with no offerings since 2005’s …Sex Actually. But they are back now looking at former prime minister Tony Blair (played by Stephen Mangan), who is on the run after being accused of murder.
Trying to clear his name, he leaves Number Ten and his wife Cherie (played by Catherine Shepherd) and goes on the run. He is being hunted by Inspector Hutton (played by Robbie Coltrane).
The Actors in The Hunt for Tony Blair
Stephen Mangan was the voice of Bigwig in the 1999 animated ITV series Watership Down and played Adrian Mole in the 2001 series Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years. In 2003, he was Lord Byron in the TV movie Frankenstein: Birth of a Monster and Robert Compton-Lewis in the 2006 ITV show Jane Hall. He also starred as Dr Guillaume Secretan in the Channel Four comedy drama Green Wing and Alex Taylor in Free Agents. More recently, he played the title role in Dirk Gently on the BBC and Sean Lincoln in Episodes.
Robbie Coltrane won three best actor Bafta awards for playing Eddie ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald in Cracker and was also nominated for a best actor Bafta for playing Danny McGlone in Tutti Frutti and for best supporting actor for Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. He has been in 17 previous Comic Strip Presents productions.
Also in The Hunt for Tony Blair are James Buckley as The Sergeant, Jennifer Saunders as Margaret Thatcher, Nigel Planer as Peter Mandelson, Harry Enfield as Alastair Campbell, Ford Kiernan as Gordon Brown, Rik Mayall as Professor Predictor, Morgana Robinson as Carole Caplin, John Sessions as Thatcher's butler and Ross Noble as an old Labour tramp.
The Team Behind The Hunt for Tony Blair
The Hunt for Tony Blair was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens. The director was Peter Richardson and the executive producer Michael Wood. It was made by Great Western Features for Channel Four.
The first Comic Strip Presents production was Five Go Mad in Dorset and it was shown in 1982 on the opening night of Channel Four. The show stayed on Channel Four for the rest of the decade and then moved to BBC Two, where they produced 15 shows before going back to Channel Four in 1998 with Four Men in a Car. The Hunt for Tony Blair will be the group’s 42nd production.
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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