‘Ukip: The First 100 Days’ shows the media prefers to laugh at than understand the party

What would happen if Britain left the EU later this year? According to Channel 4, the country would descend into riots and anarchy. Last night’s one-off drama Ukip: The First 100 Days offered a dystopian vision (complete with Beethoven’s 7th symphony) of the implausible situation where Ukip is victorious in May’s election. A landslide victory makes Nigel Farage the new Prime Minister and Neil Hamilton deputy, never mind the fact that Hamilton hasn’t even been selected as a Ukip candidate yet.

The programme was labelled a satire on Ukip and the rise of right-wing populist politics. Priyanga Burford plays Deepa Kaur, a rising star and the party’s only Asian MP who struggles with the government’s hardline immigration stance. Aside from her excellent turn as Kaur, it was hard to take the programme seriously. The main action sequences — riots and protests, backed by Unite and the Socialist Worker — jarred with the idea that Ukip had just been elected in a landslide.