Shocking: Channel 4’s Partygate reviewed

If there were special awards for Most Subtlety in a Television Drama, Tuesday’s Partygate would be unlikely to win one. You could also argue that, in contrast to most of its characters, it didn’t really bring much to the party. And yet, in a rare challenge to the law of diminishing returns, the more it pounded away with its sledgehammer, the more effective it became.

Despite the programme’s commitment to a thoroughly researched veracity that extended to the use of on-screen footnotes, the framework for the pounding was supplied by two fictional characters. Grace Greenwood (Georgie Henley) was a shining-eyed true Johnson believer from Darlington, who couldn’t believe her luck at ending up with the cool kids in No. 10. Providing the worldliness was the terrifyingly poised Annabel D’acre (Ophelia Lovibond), who might as well have been wearing a tiara with the word ‘Entitled’ inscribed in diamonds.

Having got over her puzzlement as to where Darlington was, Annabel explained to Grace (and to us) how the Downing Street staff knew each other – mainly from Oxford.