The Guardians: Part 3 - Head of State
I have commented before that this show is both a sort of televisual textbook of politics cum prompter for debate, and also has a human storyline which illustrates the effects of the political events.
From the political point of view this episode has two main themes.
The first is the reaction of the French government to the suspension of democracy and exile of the monarch in England. This is placed within the historical context of the burgeoning European Union and so illustrates England's potential role in that (this show was broadcast in 1971 and we didn't join until 1973) and relations with another state. In true British fashion this is presented as if the French are being difficult by insisting on only dealing with the actual Head of State, with the problem that the Queen is in exile and the Prime Minister is not the Head of State. Incidentally this illustrates two of the genius touches about this show: by placing the monarch in exile, it means this isn't the real England and creates a purely fictional situation; and also setting the show in England only, it avoids complicating it further, although this may have been to avoid the difficulty of talking about 'guards' in the setting of Northern Ireland to avoid any confusion with the Irish Garda.
The other is that the purely figurehead Prime Minister, controlled by forces so far unseen by the viewer, begins to get fed up with this and flexes his constitutional muscles. He does this by manipulating the Home Secretary into resigning, purely because he can. Nowadays this of course seems fairly straightforward in comparison to the Starmerist purges, however I fully expected the episode to end with the PM being assassinated or replaced as a result of his lack of compliance. Later in the episode, in an ultimate act of rebellion, he even explores ways to disband the Guardians!
I think as always the best interpretation of this would be to keep an eye on who has the power and control, and the delicate balances and negotiations are fascinating. Creating this power vacuum and filling it with an unseen General is also making me itch to see the General. I'm actually writing these posts without watching the series through to the end, purely because I think it's an intelligent show which requires concentration and is thus perfect for ongoing blogging, and I'm itching to know what happens at the end. It's also perfect for this approach because I don't think it's a very popular series so hasn't been discussed to exhaustion online.
The human element of this episode is that it introduces the PM's adult son. We see them discussing the PM's role and fow compromised he is personally by his role. Later the son gets involved with Mrs Weston. She knows that her husband has disappeared and the PM's son gets his father to put out some feelers to find out what has happened to him; the cabinet secretary tells him that Mr Weston was a 'communist', organised the killing of the cabinet secretary's nephew, and is presumed or known to be dead. We are of course clearly intended to understand that not all is being told. We see how the State in the form of the Guardians reacts to the PM's son's meddling, and in line with the power theme of this episode, we see how the Pm understands that this retaliation has a power function rather than a judicial one.
There is an absolutely magnificent twist in the plot towards the end of this episode which has merely reinforced what excellent television about politics this is, but I won't tell you what it is in this post. I may have to reveal it in successive posts, though.
The absolutely best thing about this episode is hearing the PM speaking some magnificent schoolboy French (car nous avons toujours insiste que les autres parlent anglais, nest-ce pas) and the cabinet secretary being unable to speak it because he can't be bothered to learn it.
Once again, this show is excellent, thought-provoking television.
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