I tried out The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on a whim, based on Jane Horrocks starring in it. I quickly recognized much of the cast and knew I would be on interesting ground, based on the Kudos production logo. It is that: interesting. I expected something a bit more comedic, with Horrocks, but there is little "pure" comedy here. The idea of an ordinary citizen propelled to Parliament, based on a populist campaign, is not a new idea, nor is the female focus. The family angle made it a bit more unique. It's a satire, with a rather simplistic view of the mechanisms of government, though we get snippets of scenes that reinforce that creating change isn't that easy. However, we never really get a sense of the forces that would be arrayed to oppose the kinds of changes that Ros Pritchard talks about. The Tory opposition is made out to be completely impotent, which even the Blair years would suggest was far from the truth, let alone more recent elections. We also never get a sense of business interests that might oppose many of the reforms that Pritchard wants to implement, though things are kept very much centered around general community topics and with a rather centrist view, especially compared to previous political satire/drama, like House of Cards (the original) or A Very British Coup. Those two played more with hard politics, with very definite points of view in each of their main characters. It also doesn't get into opposition from the rather conservative civil service, as in the brilliant Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister comedy series. On the end, I think it is this rather tame political stance that holds the series back and part of why it didn't generate a second series. I wondered a bit as to where on the political spectrum I might cast Ros Pritchard and pretty much concluded that dead center was about as close as I could come to an answer, even moreso than Jim Hacker ever was.The cast is all first rate and the writing is generally good, with interesting characters, though Ros Pritchard seems a little too perfect. She carries the moral high ground until forced to compromise in the last episode. This is the closest she comes to being tainted by the power she wields, another aspect I felt was less than realistic. On the other hand, her husband seems so weak that you wonder how their marriage has lasted this long. Daughter Emily seems to go from relatively level-headed to impetuous rather quickly. Also, the new MP character seems to be introduced, then ignored until a scandal is needed to set back Ros' government. This character was begging for more development than she was given.You get the feeling that many of the weaknesses of the series were elements that might have been addressed in a second series, which gives the whole thing an incomplete vibe, despite the epilogue card that inserted after a second series was nixed. Still, there are plenty of interesting ideas and characters to keep you interested for the 6 episodes, though it will probably never be rated a classic.

I can't help it. English acting is my opium. It intoxicates me, it enslaves me. They do it better (acting) over there than anywhere else.The cast is superb, starting with Jane Horrocks in the title role. Don't deny yourself the pleasure of seeing her, and Michael Caine, in the delightful "Little Voice".I am most drawn to Mrs. Pritchard's chief aide, Catherine Walker, played by the astounding Janet Mcteer. This is a performance beyond mere acting. A woman who can seem mannish, frighteningly formidable, cruel, yet vulnerable, in desperate need of affection, and just when you think she would frighten most men, she goes to bed with a man old enough to be her son.I reviewed Ms. Mcteer very favorably in the 2000, "Songcatcher", and forgot about it till I looked up her credits, in the wonderful IMDb. IMDb is surely one of the great venues of our time. I would like to thank Mr. IMDb, but this information doesn't seem to be available.I've only seen the first three installments. No. 4 of 6 is on it's way, and I can't wait!!

I'm a little surprised to have seen so many negative comments about The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. Considering that voter turnout at the 2005 election was estimated at around 60%, I should have thought someone new and dynamic like Ros Pritchard was precisely what we needed in British politics. If we could all get half this passionate about one political viewpoint, maybe politics could finally shake off its boring, our-vote-won't-count-so why-bother image. Watching this, I thought, "We could actually make this happen if we could get interested enough".On the occupational side, I would have liked to have seen more than just a few shots of Ros walking around talking to her staff to represent her work in the supermarket. Apparently Jane Horrocks visited my boss at the supermarket I work in for tips and ideas, and I felt there wasn't enough on Ros's old job. A few scenes on the shopfloor, then she decided to stand for election and that's it (bar a couple of other scenes).Politicians have a fantastic reputation for lying, so it was refreshing when Ros made a remark about the European constitution, "which to be quite frank is no better than the last one". Any other MP would say half as much with twice as many words. The only thing I would criticise was that things seemed to be tidied up very quickly, although the case of the suspected terrorist attack (topical indeed) this might be out of sensitivity to the victims and relatives of London's 2005 bombings.Equally different was when Ros actually offered to resign if her idea didn't work out. Admittedly, it might not have been the brightest thing to say in the House of Commons, but at least she was honest. Certainly she also found the clever people to join her cabinet. Miranda, for instance, negotiated with the journalist in a way that would have scared me and I was most surprised when it backfired. I must give credit to Jodhi May - I've seen her in lots of productions and I didn't recognise her in this until half way through.There were a lot of family scenes that I found humorous. It wasn't so much the idea of the prime minister finding a condom in her daughter's pocket that tickled me, but the fact that Ros only found it because she was looking for her iPod, which said daughter had borrowed. In spite of Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" thing, I just can't imagine him with an iPod. On that note, the characterisation of Emily and Georgina is excellent. When a preoccupied Emily takes her little sister out for lunch and says, "You can have anything you want", Georgina seizes the moment and drinks her sister's wine.Much of Ros' personal background comes out towards the end. The reason why her girls are obviously so important to her is incredibly sad, especially in the context that she discloses it to Catherine. It's interesting, too, that political tension seems to build just as tension in the Pritchard family builds, too.Without giving anything away, the ending was a bit of a let-down. Close to the end, Ros wakes up after talking with her husband and - at the crack of dawn - has a secretary talking non-stop about her appointments for the day and I wondered, "How is this woman still functioning?" There are a lot of twists and turns, all the time you are expecting Ros to be ousted and the ending was just too anti-climactic. So anti-climactic, in fact, that I thought there would be another episode the following week.Overall, an interesting, thought-provoking, optimistic series that was sadly let down by the very end of the last episode.

From Sally Wainwright, the creator of the brilliant At Home with the Braithwaites, this is another family comedy/drama with a splash of fantasy thrown in. Who hasn't looked at idiotic politicians and thought they could do a better job? Ros Pritchard (Jane Horrocks) does just that, and her view strikes a chord with the British public. To her surprise, she is elected Prime Minister! Yes, totally ridiculous that we would vote in an unknown supermarket manager to run the country, but it's a nice daydream. Jane Horrocks is surprisingly sane after a career of eccentrics, but my favourite is the magnificent Janet McTeer as the chancellor, Catherine Walker, a Tory convert. McTeer exudes class and intelligence, even in this far fetched political fantasy. A great cast of women includes Jodhi May, Geraldine James, Sally Philips, Frances Tomelty, Sylvestra La Touzel and Meera Syal. Yes, hardly a man in sight! Steven McIntosh as Ros' husband is a pretty limp and lame character too. In fact the most sympathetic male is probably Catherine's rather cute toyboy Ben! The politics *is* rather liberal, but as escapist fantasy of women running the country, this is a fun show.