Lambeth Fantastical - August 2024
The Guardians and other British Coups
In the summer of 1971
London Weekend Television, based at Southbank Television Studios in Waterloo,
launched its cult dystopian near future series 'The Guardians'.
Starring Gweneth Powell, who gained fame as
the headmistress in Grange Hill, and David Burke, who was later Watson to
Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, it ran for thirteen one hour episodes from July
10th to the 2nd of October.
The premise of the series was that a
democratically elected UK government had been overthrown in a bloodless right wing
coup. The newly installed prime minister is essentially a pawn to the leader of
the paramilitary quasi fascist armed police force known as the Guardians. The
series focuses on the power struggles between moderates and extremist in both
the Government and the resistance movement, known collectively as 'Quarmby'. In
a very early role Winsor Davies plays a union shop steward who falls foul of
the Guardians.
By the Gods of Science Fiction have uploaded the series on YouTube at this link.
The Guardians
At that time, not far from Southbank Television
Studios, work was about to commence on King's Reach Tower, which would become the headquarters of IPC Media. Due its
recent status as a subsidiary of Amalgamated Press IPC had an association to a
real life conspiracy which planned to stage a coup against the government of Harold Wilson.
In the late 60s Cecil King, the egotistical
chairman of Amalgamated Press and board member of the Bank of England, had
developed a dislike for Wilson. The dislike ran so deep that he hatched a plot
to overthrow him and install a caretaker Government with himself as a member
of the Cabinet. King’s plan was for this Government to be headed by Lord
Mountbatten, who would run the country based on his previous administration of
India in the run up to independence. Unfortunately King got ahead of himself
and tried to entice left wing Labour MP, Tony Benn, into his clandestine
cabal. Benn leaked the story to the Guardian newspaper, who exposed the plot,
leading to the board of Amalgamated Press calling for King's resignation. When
he refused, they sacked him. The newspaper and magazine division then became
separate companies with the newspaper element eventually becoming the Mirror
Group.
The incident inspired the 1982 novel 'A Very
British Coup', written by Labour MP, Chris Mullen. The book was made into a TV
series starring Ray McAnnaly in 1988, and remade in 2012, as the four part serial
‘Secret State’, with Gabriel Byrne taking the lead role.
Meanwhile back with IPC Media, who launched
their most successful comic title 2000AD in February 1977. One of the first
comic strips to be featured in 2000AD was 'Invasion'. The premise of 'Invasion' is that
the Soviet Union has been taken over by the fascistic Volgans who then invade
Britain. The royal family is exiled to Canada and the Prime Minister, Shirley
Brown, is executed along with loyal members of the Cabinet. A puppet government
under the leadership of the fittingly named, Simon Creepton, does the bidding
of the Volgans in what becomes known as The People's Republic of Britain.
Created by Pat Mills and Gerry Finlay-Day 'Invasion' ran in the first 51
editions of 2000AD and featured lorry driver, Bill Savage, as the main
character, who goes on to become leader of the resistance.
Another early 2000AD serial created by Pat Mills
was M.A.C.H. 1 in which government agent, John Probe, is given superhuman
abilities akin to those of the popular 70s TV character the Six Million Dollar
Man. Rather than bionics Probe’s abilities are a consequence of a computer
enhanced form of acupuncture known a compu-puncture, making him M.A.C.H. 1 (Man
Activated by Compu-puncture Hyperpower).
After the Blair landslide General election of
1997 the concept was revisited by 2000AD in the political parody B.L.A.I.R.1
(Bio-Enhancement Link-Up via Artificial Intelligence Relays). The premise of
this is that on discovering the technology used for M.A.C.H. 1 Tony Blair melds
his mind with the artificial intelligence known as ‘Spin Doctor’ in order to
enhance his abilities as Prime Minister. Of course, things don't go to plan
with 'Spin Doctor' effectively staging an internal coup to control more and
more of the decision making and what's left of Blair's human mind taking on the
role of the resistance.
A more recent exploration of the potential for a
British coup comes in streaming series 'Pennyworth' which had its first showing
in 2019 and now has three series under its belt. Many of the locations for the
show were filmed around the Roupell Street conservation area in Waterloo, with
the Kings Arms becoming ‘The Severed Arm’, the local of main character Alfred
Pennyworth, played by Norwich born, Jack Bannon.
Set in an alternative London
in the mid-60s, it is the back story of Batman’s butler, who is an ex-SAS
soldier engaged by Bruce Wayne’s father, Thomas Wayne, in efforts to thwart a
plot by the fascistic Raven Society to overthrow the government and stage a
coup. The leader of the Raven Society, Lord Harwood, is played by Jason
Flemyng, son of Gordon Flemyng, who directed the two 1960s Amicus Productions’
Dr Who movies. Paloma Faith play Bet Sykes, a deliciously sadistic villainess.
The show’s executive
producer, Bruno Heller, has said that ‘Pennyworth’ is not only a sequel to his
2014 Batman origins TV series ‘Gotham’ but also to the events in London depicted
in ‘V for Vendetta’, the graphic novel by Alan Moore, David Lloyd and Tony
Weare. Moore started his early career at 2000AD, creating, amongst others, the
legendary ‘Halo Jones’ series. ‘V for Vendetta’ however first appeared in the
independent Lewisham based ‘Warrior’ comic, which ran from 1982 to 1985 and was
edited by Dez Skinn.
In the storyline the neo-fascist Norsefire Party has seized control of the British Government and established a police state, complete with concentration camps and public executions. The resistance is led by the anarchist protagonist ‘V’ who disguises his identity by means of a Guy Fawkes mask. The film version starred James Purefoy and Nathalie Portman. Since the film’s release in 2006, fiction has bled into reality, with the Guy Fawkes mask becoming a symbol of anti-establishment protests where anarchists and activists don the mask to conceal their identities and make a stark visual political statement.
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