Mandelson: The Real PM? is not so much a fly on a wall as a bluebottle buzzing round a dunghill. Hannah Rothschild invites us to join her on the trail of the gastropodic slime, littered with the rotting corpses of political roadkill, that is Peter Mandelson’s life. It is as gripping as it is depressing. Whether the Beeb thought they were being ironic by calling this ‘Storyville’ we will never know. But it does just sound uncannily similar to the League of Gentlemen’s dark and twisted comedy, Psychoville. There may be no one-handed homicidal clown in Rothschild’s work, but Peter Mandelson, the real PM, is much scarier.
Rothschild’s gift is in the edit. In one hour and 14 minutes she has spliced weeks of footage into a skilful montage which tugs at our emotions from unexpected angles. You admire the man for all his ruthless determination. You loathe him for his arrogance and bully boy tactics.
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