The Guardians: Part 9 - I Want You To Understand Me

Another slight change of pace back to straightforward political intrigue in this one.

This is not to say there is no emotional stressing in the form of discussion of the PM's son's rather bruising love affair. It has taken me a while to think why i so much dislike the emotional angst of this show. I just think that probably in the situation described there would be less emotional stressing about sex, affairs and so on. In comparison to the bigger political things going on it comes across as out of context.

Quarmby have developed a habit of sending reel to reel tapes containing demands through the post. Therefore one of the subjects of the episode is again information and disinformation, because the government are completely wrong-footed and unable even to identify what Quarmby is. The government have delightfully taken in every citizen actually called Quarmby over the age of twelve for questioning. They've been made a fool of.

Quarmby have also taken a significant hostage and they only have one demand: they want the return of the Queen to England. Now if you're watching this in any number of far away countries that don't have constitutional monarchies, this may sound strange, but don't forget that we once tried being a republic and it was terrible. As far as plot is concerned it becomes clear that this return of the monarch is something that the PM could simply do by calling an election. For the viewer this plot device therefore transforms the PM from the previous appearance of manipulated puppet and makes it plain that actually he is responsible for the regime which rules the country and for the collapse of democracy. This is one of the things I like best about this show so far, because it's successfully given the viewer (at least me) the wrong impression of the Prime Minister by making him a sympathetic character when actually he could just stop this at any point.

The significant hostage that Quarmby have taken also carries on the theme of disinformation because the hostage is the official state executioner. From previous episodes we know that executions in 1980s England are actually done by a medic by lethal injection and not at the time announced. The executioner is therefore actually an actor who plays the role for the public and has never executed anyone in his life. Quarmby have therefore taken on an innocent hostage who is part of the government's own disinformation. Phew.

I don't know whether the viewer was intended to make the connection but the house where the executioner is held hostage is in Warwickshire, and the significance could be that the Civil War (between supporters of king and parliament) really kicked off in Warwickshire with the Battle of Edgehill. He is therefore being held in the place where history reflects the show's struggle between the government who have exiled the Queen and Quarmby, who want the monarch back.

My only criticism is that the thread where the PM's son is stressing about his bruising love affair was unnecessary and could well have been omitted completely.

Otherwise this is an excellent episode of this show, with real intrigue, developing the plot of the series.

This blog is mirrored at

culttvblog.tumblr.com/archive (from September 2023) and culttvblog.substack.com (from January 2023 and where you can subscribe by email)

Archives from 2013 to September 2023 may be found at culttvblog.blogspot.com and there is an index to the tags used on the Tumblr version at https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729194158177370112/this-blog