The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006) User Reviews

Nice starter for 10

[guylovelady · 7/10 · 4 October 2006]

Epiosde 1 screened last night - Tuesday 3 October

It was a good start with plenty to develop in the further 5 episodes.

Often in these kind of shows where real people play themselves, the real people lack credibility - They appear to act. But here Kirsty Wark and Peter Snow played themselves with the authority one should expect from the original.

Jane Horrocks was excellent and her beleaguered hubby was entirely believable.

There was also an excellent balance between shabby politicians and exposing the job they do as remorselessly difficult. It is to hoped that this balance can be maintained throughout the production.

Interesting that it is billed as comedy when the laughs were few and far between. Not that that is a bad thing.

Relative Fast Pace, in places scary realism

[tewkes_ape · 8/10 · 18 October 2006]

Firstly I think the previous comment was perhaps a little harsh. So far this program has operated at a highly interesting angle, by having an initial intense fast pace, and a gradual slow down before throwing a new thing at the audience to consider.

There is continually something for the audience to think about, and about 15 things at the same time. All the concerns of someone running a country, while it is slightly unrealistic with some of the simplicity it makes the point it's trying to make very well.

Much of the policies "Mrs. Pritchard" tends to raise are real life policies. Won't say any more here.

As a piece of Tuesday night viewing it's worth watching, unlike much of whats on at the moment.

Excellent entertainment that raised some serious points about the state of modern politics

[wieldy · 9/10 · 4 October 2006]

I watched this show mainly because it was written by Sally Wainwright, creator of the excellent At Home With the Braithwaites and ITV's recent Jane Hall. She is a fantastic writer with a strong sense for creating 'real' people, especially those in the North and, in particular, women. There was also the added bonus of the great cast. Jane Horrocks is a fantastic actress, anyone who has seen Little Voice knows how versatile she is, and the supporting cast all bring their own strengths. I had never seen either Jodhi May or Carey Mulligan outside of a corset so it was great to see them do something contemporary.

I thoroughly enjoyed this programme. There was something so likable about Ros Pritchard that I found myself rooting for her from the start (although I can't say the same about her husband!). You could say that the two daughters, especially the youngest, were a little too similar to the daughters from The Braithwaites, but I really didn't mind. The characterisations and dialogue was spot on, I laughed out loud several times. As well as being funny and entertaining, Mrs Pritchard managed to make some very serious, and real, points about the state of modern politics and the problem of voter apathy. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the series.

Fun but Pure Fantasy!

[ukxenafan1 · 8/10 · 25 October 2006]

From Sally Wainwright, the creator of the brilliant At Home with the Braithwaites, this is another family comedy/drama with a splash of fantasy thrown in. Who hasn't looked at idiotic politicians and thought they could do a better job? Ros Pritchard (Jane Horrocks) does just that, and her view strikes a chord with the British public. To her surprise, she is elected Prime Minister! Yes, totally ridiculous that we would vote in an unknown supermarket manager to run the country, but it's a nice daydream. Jane Horrocks is surprisingly sane after a career of eccentrics, but my favourite is the magnificent Janet McTeer as the chancellor, Catherine Walker, a Tory convert. McTeer exudes class and intelligence, even in this far fetched political fantasy. A great cast of women includes Jodhi May, Geraldine James, Sally Philips, Frances Tomelty, Sylvestra La Touzel and Meera Syal. Yes, hardly a man in sight! Steven McIntosh as Ros' husband is a pretty limp and lame character too. In fact the most sympathetic male is probably Catherine's rather cute toyboy Ben! The politics *is* rather liberal, but as escapist fantasy of women running the country, this is a fun show.

The story, the cast and direction all are top notch.

[chrisck · 10/10 · 4 November 2007]

The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard is a superb performance by a very believable cast. The story is one of hope, against a backdrop of political despair that many in the world today face. The idea that one of the marginal people can rise above the corrupt incompetence that many in national parties claim is just the way things are done, is very inspiring. Jane Horrocks was consummate for the part. Jane's dynamic range gave us a believable character we have to cheer for, from one of the little people to that of a world leader in a couple of episodes, she made this performance most memorable.

The foibles of those around Mrs. Pritchard add the dramatic element found often in reality: it isn't what a person really wants to accomplish, it is how that person reacts to those in the world around them that makes for a charismatic winner.

Newcomer Jemma McKenzie-Brown who played young Georgina Pritchard with enthusiasm, was the innocent yet solid support for Mrs. Pritchard's transition from Mom to Prime Minister.

The entire supporting cast was wonderful.

The story, the cast's performances and direction all are top notch. 10 of 10!

Remember Martin Bell and Peter Law?

[HarryHayfield · 10/10 · 22 September 2006]

What would happen if an ordinary person formed a party and decided to run for Prime Minister simply based on the fact that what people wanted they could get? Well, that's precisely what Mrs. Pritchard does! This is a new comedy / drama programme by the BBC and in the first episode shows what could happen. Featuring appearances by Gavin Esler and Kirsty Wark of BBC Newsnight fame as well as "king of the swingers" Peter Snow this programme will excite not only keen election watchers but also ordinary people as well. In fact I would go so far as to suggest that following this series, the number of Independent candidates for the next election could skyrocket!

Fantastic

[georgiaq · 15 October 2006]

Inspiring work- it's lovely to watch a show which is willing to challenge the stuffy notions of a bigoted political world and offer an alternative which is frankly illuminating. A female cabinet- why is this really so shocking after all?? Actually the image of the House of Commons consisting of 50% women kicks in the reality of how sadly 'normal' it is for the House to be mostly run by men- to those women already working hard in politics this show offers a world of the future- 'The Amazing Mrs Pritchard" shows what politics could be like- hats off to Horrocks and co- let's get rid of the cynical mentality that plagues British politics!!

Strange comments

[sean-thomas999 · 8/10 · 14 November 2006]

I liked it. As a short series, I found it interesting and more importantly, entertaining and for me, that's what TV is about: entertainment!! I've just read one comment saying the whole thing was so PC and another saying the opposite. I just find this strange and fail to see why every single program on TV needs to tick all the PC check-boxes for some people and needs to oppose all the PC rubbish for others. What's wrong with pure entertainment that's not 'designed' to fit a particular agenda? Sure some of it is fantastic - meant as in pertaining to fantasy - but what the hell in wrong with that? I don't watch much TV, preferring to pick and choose stuff I think might be interesting and this short series fitted the bill nicely.

An interesting first episode

[ic2 · 6/10 · 3 October 2006]

The first episode has just finished.

It was quite good. Some problems with it's, cuteness, but otherwise an entertaining hour on an otherwise improbable plot, and believe me as someone who stood as independent in a district council election, it is improbable.

For me Jane Horrocks was a bit light, she is a fine actress and carried the part well but she was too much "little voice". A supermarket manager was appropriate as I was reminded of the adverts she appeared in here in the UK with Prunella Scales.

Nice to see an outing for so many good actors, I struggled to remember where I had seen the jilted bride and it has just come to me, the daughter from Funland, she might even be wearing the same wedding dress.

I look forward to the next 5 episodes and hope that Jane Horrocks can find some substance, all the same, excellent Tuesday night tele fodder. It will keep me out of the pub.

Can someone find a real Ros Pritchard to stand as MP?

[IridescentTranquility · 9/10 · 12 December 2006]

I'm a little surprised to have seen so many negative comments about The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. Considering that voter turnout at the 2005 election was estimated at around 60%, I should have thought someone new and dynamic like Ros Pritchard was precisely what we needed in British politics. If we could all get half this passionate about one political viewpoint, maybe politics could finally shake off its boring, our-vote-won't-count-so why-bother image. Watching this, I thought, "We could actually make this happen if we could get interested enough".

On the occupational side, I would have liked to have seen more than just a few shots of Ros walking around talking to her staff to represent her work in the supermarket. Apparently Jane Horrocks visited my boss at the supermarket I work in for tips and ideas, and I felt there wasn't enough on Ros's old job. A few scenes on the shopfloor, then she decided to stand for election and that's it (bar a couple of other scenes).

Politicians have a fantastic reputation for lying, so it was refreshing when Ros made a remark about the European constitution, "which to be quite frank is no better than the last one". Any other MP would say half as much with twice as many words. The only thing I would criticise was that things seemed to be tidied up very quickly, although the case of the suspected terrorist attack (topical indeed) this might be out of sensitivity to the victims and relatives of London's 2005 bombings.

Equally different was when Ros actually offered to resign if her idea didn't work out. Admittedly, it might not have been the brightest thing to say in the House of Commons, but at least she was honest. Certainly she also found the clever people to join her cabinet. Miranda, for instance, negotiated with the journalist in a way that would have scared me and I was most surprised when it backfired. I must give credit to Jodhi May - I've seen her in lots of productions and I didn't recognise her in this until half way through.

There were a lot of family scenes that I found humorous. It wasn't so much the idea of the prime minister finding a condom in her daughter's pocket that tickled me, but the fact that Ros only found it because she was looking for her iPod, which said daughter had borrowed. In spite of Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" thing, I just can't imagine him with an iPod. On that note, the characterisation of Emily and Georgina is excellent. When a preoccupied Emily takes her little sister out for lunch and says, "You can have anything you want", Georgina seizes the moment and drinks her sister's wine.

Much of Ros' personal background comes out towards the end. The reason why her girls are obviously so important to her is incredibly sad, especially in the context that she discloses it to Catherine. It's interesting, too, that political tension seems to build just as tension in the Pritchard family builds, too.

Without giving anything away, the ending was a bit of a let-down. Close to the end, Ros wakes up after talking with her husband and - at the crack of dawn - has a secretary talking non-stop about her appointments for the day and I wondered, "How is this woman still functioning?" There are a lot of twists and turns, all the time you are expecting Ros to be ousted and the ending was just too anti-climactic. So anti-climactic, in fact, that I thought there would be another episode the following week.

Overall, an interesting, thought-provoking, optimistic series that was sadly let down by the very end of the last episode.

Interesting series, though somewhat simplistic.

[grendelkhan · 7/10 · 4 May 2013]

I tried out The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on a whim, based on Jane Horrocks starring in it. I quickly recognized much of the cast and knew I would be on interesting ground, based on the Kudos production logo. It is that: interesting. I expected something a bit more comedic, with Horrocks, but there is little "pure" comedy here. The idea of an ordinary citizen propelled to Parliament, based on a populist campaign, is not a new idea, nor is the female focus. The family angle made it a bit more unique. It's a satire, with a rather simplistic view of the mechanisms of government, though we get snippets of scenes that reinforce that creating change isn't that easy. However, we never really get a sense of the forces that would be arrayed to oppose the kinds of changes that Ros Pritchard talks about. The Tory opposition is made out to be completely impotent, which even the Blair years would suggest was far from the truth, let alone more recent elections. We also never get a sense of business interests that might oppose many of the reforms that Pritchard wants to implement, though things are kept very much centered around general community topics and with a rather centrist view, especially compared to previous political satire/drama, like House of Cards (the original) or A Very British Coup. Those two played more with hard politics, with very definite points of view in each of their main characters. It also doesn't get into opposition from the rather conservative civil service, as in the brilliant Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister comedy series. On the end, I think it is this rather tame political stance that holds the series back and part of why it didn't generate a second series. I wondered a bit as to where on the political spectrum I might cast Ros Pritchard and pretty much concluded that dead center was about as close as I could come to an answer, even moreso than Jim Hacker ever was.

The cast is all first rate and the writing is generally good, with interesting characters, though Ros Pritchard seems a little too perfect. She carries the moral high ground until forced to compromise in the last episode. This is the closest she comes to being tainted by the power she wields, another aspect I felt was less than realistic. On the other hand, her husband seems so weak that you wonder how their marriage has lasted this long. Daughter Emily seems to go from relatively level-headed to impetuous rather quickly. Also, the new MP character seems to be introduced, then ignored until a scandal is needed to set back Ros' government. This character was begging for more development than she was given.

You get the feeling that many of the weaknesses of the series were elements that might have been addressed in a second series, which gives the whole thing an incomplete vibe, despite the epilogue card that inserted after a second series was nixed. Still, there are plenty of interesting ideas and characters to keep you interested for the 6 episodes, though it will probably never be rated a classic.

Another hit for Masterpiece Theatre!! May you reign forever!!!

[stuhh2001 · 8/10 · 8 November 2007]

I can't help it. English acting is my opium. It intoxicates me, it enslaves me. They do it better (acting) over there than anywhere else.

The cast is superb, starting with Jane Horrocks in the title role. Don't deny yourself the pleasure of seeing her, and Michael Caine, in the delightful "Little Voice".

I am most drawn to Mrs. Pritchard's chief aide, Catherine Walker, played by the astounding Janet Mcteer. This is a performance beyond mere acting. A woman who can seem mannish, frighteningly formidable, cruel, yet vulnerable, in desperate need of affection, and just when you think she would frighten most men, she goes to bed with a man old enough to be her son.

I reviewed Ms. Mcteer very favorably in the 2000, "Songcatcher", and forgot about it till I looked up her credits, in the wonderful IMDb. IMDb is surely one of the great venues of our time. I would like to thank Mr. IMDb, but this information doesn't seem to be available.

I've only seen the first three installments. No. 4 of 6 is on it's way, and I can't wait!!

It got better

[grahamf-55542 · 7/10 · 27 August 2021]

By the end of E2 I could only think of one word to describe it - superficial. A shallow plot that even the first rate acting of Jane Horrocks and the other leads couldn't turn into anything convincing.

I was reminded of "The Marvellous Mrs Maisel". Although I did eventually find that rather tiresome, the story was much more convincing.

But Mrs P improved by E4. Or maybe I'd just got used to it. But the dilemma's Mrs P faced were interesting and I was keen to find out what happened.

Women can be politicians? Amazing!

[JudyObscure · 3/10 · 22 October 2007]

Hasn't this been done a hundred times? You'd think after Margaret Thatcher this wouldn't be such a shocking premise. I found the whole thing silly and irritating.

I dislike prejudice in any form so it offends me to hear statements like, "Women are better at politics because they can admit when they've made a mistake." I don't think work has a gender, I don't think women are better at politics any more than men are better at engineering. I also dislike seeing women treat their husbands like children and their children like adults.

This might make a nice "follow your dream" film for school girls except for the fact that the film teaches that self-esteem is a more useful career preparation than education or experience.

Timely, interesting and entertaining

[troskaya · 9/10 · 18 November 2007]

I just finished watching the sixth and last episode of The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS in the US. I loved it from the beginning. It's a fast-paced drama/comedy/fantasy/ which deals with the question of whether it is possible for a politician to avoid corruption. The way it plays out is intriguing and fun, with lots of good dialogue.

It's timely for us in the US because we have an administration which is certainly the most corrupt and destructive in our history. Current events are often used as reference points in the series, but it's not heavy-handed concerning Bush and things concerning the US.

In fact, I found it a wonderful escape from what is going on. What a fantasy: Someone in charge, a common person herself, who is determined to remain completely for the people, who promises the British people that she will never lie to them or mislead them and never forgets that promise; she is always conscious of it. We see an ordinary person take on the burdens of leadership and struggle to maintain her family life at the same time.

All the actors were good for the roles. Jodhi May again demonstrates her acting skills and versatility; Janet McTeer is outstanding, as usual -- I would watch it again just for her expressions and body language. It is beyond me how and why anyone could comment that the acting is bad, though I can understand why one of the viewers was upset that everyone in the series was white. Actually, that's not entirely true because a South Asian character is in a couple of episodes.

I didn't give it a full ten because I dislike the way it ends -- it leaves things hanging and we have to guess what might happen. But it might be that I am just upset that it is over.

When will we see the later episodes in Scotland?

[jfl-13 · 10/10 · 11 November 2006]

The later episodes were replaced by football matches, please arrange for us to see them. My wife and I greatly enjoyed the episodes we saw for, though the plot is unlikely, it expressed the feelings of many that politicians pay no attention to the wishes of the electorate and follow their own agenda. I have long thought that parliament should move from London further north. I would choose York or even Manchester or Newcastle rather Bradford in the play. This will never happen for MPs would then not be able to earn large sums decorating City offices. Incidentally I think an MPs job should be full-time so no outside earning should be allowed. I belong to a profession, medicine, trusted by the population and think politicians should get their act together, stop lying to us on Radio & TV and start to earn our respect. They do not seem to realise that lying is easily detected on TV.

Bubbles meets West Wing -- not

[JonathanWalford · 8/10 · 5 April 2007]

From the promos I thought this series was a comedy satire but although it has comedic moments, especially at the beginning of the series, this is really a fantasy drama set in a 'what if' scenario of modern British politics.

Some of the plot is far fetched but the author skillfully draws most of the unrealistic stretches back in so that it never goes too far, although it gets dangerously close at times. A hot headed Yorkshire housewife invents a political party comprised mostly of women with only weeks to a general election, wins, fails to control her own mouth and temper, suggests parliament move to Bradford and introduces a green day each week without proper planning or warning? Not believable. However, the writing is so good that you begin to think maybe it could happen.

Suspend disbelief a bit and you get sucked into thinking how a little action and honesty from politicians might actually solve some of today's problems! The actresses in the lead roles are all magnificent and flawed, likable and ruthless, vulnerable and hard. There is Brilliant character development with a few areas for growth that will hopefully be explored in a follow-up series.

I am giving it an 8 only because I would like to see a little more character development of the male characters which are not as well written as the female characters and for some of the plots being just a titch OTT. Some of the best parts of this series deal with the mundane aspects of politics rather than the extreme changes in policy. Overall, its a great series that is also very educational. I never really knew what the Chancellor of the Exchequor did until now!

White,middle class nonsense!

[alastairfalk · 1/10 · 4 October 2006]

This is one of the least realistic,and most annoying, things I have ever seen. The plot is nonsense, the central character smug, the acting second rate,and the setting totally unrealistic. Most infuriating of all, it projects a Britain that is entirely white and middle class. Not only are all the main actors ,and apparently therefore candidates in Mrs Pritchard's party, white , but even the extras seem to have come from old Tory central (casting) office ! The only non white faces seem to be in the background at the hospital-although not,of course, doctors. If this is what television believes the world if like,and what people would vote for, then you wonder why David Cameron is bothering about image change.

A surface job. No depth.

[michaelt281702085 · 5/10 · 21 August 2012]

Sally Wainwright could have really made this series a lot better by giving her Prime Minister a particular cause, for example standing and being counted for the most vulnerable people in this country, ie the old, disabled, sick, and unemployed.

So for me, a person who has stood as an Independent for Parliament before, and on behalf of the vulnerable, this series was a rather lost cause.

For over 30 years, todays being August 21st 2012, Britain has had right wing Government's since the 80's and the nauseating Thatcher, where the poor have been hit again and again, with nobody speaking up for them, and this was what was lacking in Sally Wainwright's drama series.

I give the series 5 because it was an interesting but shallow political ride.

Perhaps Sally Wainwright should write up about how badly the elderly people of Britain are treated.

There are 12 million pensioners in this country who would be pleased to receive media attention, at last.