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Episodics
1.
History Man
Prentiss
McCabe client, Nigel Harting (Stephen Boxer), is a celebrated presenter
of television history programmes, who specialises in revealing sensational
facts. But he has a secret.
Newspaper
editor, Marcus Payne (Andrew Whipp), has discovered that Nigel plays
fast and loose with his sources. A letter in Latin proving that
Anne of Cleves was actually a man is an outright fake.
Marcus
agrees to shelve this career-destroying revelation if Charles (Stephen
Fry) can dig up some shocking and rather more tabloid-compatible
filth about Nigel's private life.
Meanwhile,
Prentiss McCabe is saddled with Big Brother contestant Teresa (Sharon
Horgan), recruited as a client because she stripped in the shower.
She
is now revealed as a bully and a bore and demands that Martin (John
Bird) supervises the promotion of her huge and appalling novel.
2.
Pope Idol
Martin
(John Bird) and Jamie (James Lance) sense that the world of PR is
changing. The profession has developed such a bad reputation that
it could do with a bit of spin-doctoring itself.
To
show that they can make a good impression as well as making money,
Prentiss McCabe takes part in a charity football tournament where
Charles (Stephen Fry) doesn't quite play the game.
Prentiss
McCabe then takes on the Archbishop of York (Richard Corderey),
a rather dour man of the cloth whose supporters hope to make into
the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
Charles
doesn't play the game on that one either. He refuses to help, much
more interested in the case of a brilliant, young, Welsh footballer
who wants to convince the authorities he's really English in the
hope of playing in the next World Cup.
Mark
Lawson makes a cameo appearance as the presenter of Pope Idol.
3.
Tory Woman
How
does one go about re-launching a junior shadow spokeswoman who has
been marginalised in the Tory party?
She
referred to her leader as "pork bum" and her last ditch
attempt to stay in the mainstream of politics is to sponsor a 'Right
To Retire' campaign.
The
politician in question is 'spokes-bore', Joanne Standing (Rebecca
Front), shadow spokeswoman for work and pensions.
Charles
(Stephen Fry) reluctantly takes on her campaign which seems to promise
little in the way of glamour, or more importantly, money.
It's
just another bad day at the office but when Charles starts to sprinkle
some of his magic dust the consequences are unpredictably successful.
Elsewhere
Martin (John Bird) believes he's in danger of serious physical assault
from an irate celebrity chef, whose latest restaurant opening night
Martin has managed to cock up.
4.
Mr Fox
When
Health Secretary Simon Wellington (Nicholas Farrell) wins an injunction
preventing newspapers from reporting an incident on Hampstead Heath
in which he was allegedly mugged by two men, Charles (Stephen Fry)
agrees to help Wellington keep his job.
But
the survival strategy is threatened by the emergence of a transcript
detailing what was said on the Heath that night. It looks bad for
the minister until Martin (John Bird) demonstrates to journalists
that over-heard words can have more than one meaning.
Charles,
however, still faces the problem of going face to face with a spin-doctor
even more Machiavellian than he is - the Number 10 Press Secretary,
Colin Priestley (Angus Deayton).
Priestley
suggests Wellington should come out to save his career. In other
words: "If you're out, you're in. If you're in, you're out."
Away
from Westminster Alison is shepherding Jimmy Bart, a bad-boy pop
star, who has promised his new record company that he's clean of
drugs.
But
when her client starts to behave strangely Alison is herself forced
to act out of character, undertaking a dangerous mission in Soho.
5.
Country Life
Successful
novelist Roddy Growse (Adrian Lukis) orchestrates the appointment
of Prentiss McCabe to represent The Real Country Union, a pressure
group that has decided to launch itself as a political party.
The
group is the brain child of Lord Harcourt (Geoffrey Palmer) who
in Charles' judgement is an old imbecile who sits around his extensive
Oxfordshire pile, writing letters to The Times about voles.
It
is agreed, with Harcourt's blessing, that Roddy should lead the
new party. A meeting is arranged for Charles (Stephen Fry) and Martin
(John Bird) to meet the Union at Harcourt's estate.
All
goes swimmingly well until Harcourt and Roddy decide that Charles
and Martin deserve to be given a little extra insight into the organisation
which they have agreed to promote.
There
follows a revelation that puts Charles' belief that he can spin
anything - even the un-spinnable - severely to the test.
Elsewhere
there is the brutal junking of radio veteran Sandy 'Rigor' Morters
(Paul Bentley) to be addressed and the regeneration, by any means,
of Gareth Hunt's career
6.
Burn and Crash
A hugely
lucrative golden handcuff deal is jeopardised when one of Charles'
(Stephen Fry) most successful clients, the stand-up comedian Alan
Boardman (Jason Barry), is caught on CCTV camera beating up his
girlfriend in the Ikea car park.
The
strategy Charles proposes to save his career is, even by Prentiss
McCabes' shoddy moral standards, as unethical as it is shocking.
An apocalyptic end seems inevitable for the sultans of spin.
Meanwhile
in an attempt to sex up their image, the Tory party have approached
Prentiss McCabe to launch a youth-led campaign - should they choose
as their anthem I Have A Dream by Westlife, It's OK by Atomic Kitten
or Blue's All Rise?
Back
to main release
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