Talk:A Very British Coup

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How are the endings of the novel and movie different? Drutt 11:38, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

In the novel, Perkins is forced to resign and the public are none the wiser. In the TV serial, Perkins refuses to read out his resignation speech and instead tells the public about the blackmail attempt and calls a general election. The last scene occurs sometime after polling day, where we hear a BBC World Service news bulletin referring to 'the political upheaval of the past three weeks' and 'the authorities at Buckingham Palace' who are issuing statements on the constitutional situation, and then we hear a helicopter and some military radio chatter. Presumably we're meant to infer that Perkins' opponents had launched a straightforward military coup. --82.45.163.18 15:28, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

The details of the blackmail were also different. In the BBC version, it was a straight-up secret relationship, which presumably makes Perkins a bit more sympathetic. In the novel, the affair created a significant appearance of impropriety because Perkins' mistress subsequently married another fellow whose firm won a contract to construct nuclear power plants from Perkins' ministry. In addition, it wasn't just a case of Perkins resigning -- the novel's epilogue makes it clear that he was a broken man afterwards who played little role in politics. Wainwright -- Perkins' Labour nemesis -- becomes Prime Minister and reversed course on a number of key foreign policy issues (US bases, nuclear weapons, etc.) Jkp1187 (talk) 14:59, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

The 'improper' aspect of the relationship is also in the programme (Channel 4, not BBC) - instead of a nuclear power firm, the husband and wife ran an investment trust (contemptuously described as "ideologically sound" by Fiennes) which negotiated the loan from the USSR that saved Perkins's government earlier. Browne's blackmail material is forged Swiss bank statements showing large payments from the Kremlin to Perkins himself. Ou tis (talk) 21:11, 25 April 2008 (UTC)