The Amazing Mrs Prichard – DVD Review

Being an American, I don’t get to watch much BBC programing. Which is, of course, sad for me. That being said, I am a fan of many programs, and when The Amazing Mrs Prichard popped up on my radar, I was happy to watch the six episode BBC mini series.

I would be lying if I said I knew any of the actors in this series. The star here is Jane Horrocks, who reminds me of Princess Diana.

You can read what this series is about from the description above. A working mom becomes Prime Minister after starting her own political party (The Purple Party. The artist formally known as Prince is said to have donated millions to them.) It seems that the entire Purple Party is made up almost exclusively by women. There is never any real mention why this is, or if it is a party of/by women only. But this series sees almost every cabinet member is a woman, again for no reason given.

The entire series was somewhat farfetched. Being honest seems to be the only qualification needed for Pritchard to become both the head of the Purple Party, as well as Prime Minister. It plays out like a weak The West Wing-lite. No one political subject is given much room to breath, save for the mandate to not drive once a week. (That would never work in the U.S.)

The husband and two children of the Prime Minister is given ample time to develop as characters, as is a few other key cabinet members. Beyond that, most are simply paper cutouts, not given enough time or script to tell their story.

And it is the story here that is the draw, at least right up to the end. And as much as I enjoyed the six hours spent watching this mini-series, I did feel somewhat cheated at the very end. Rather than showing what happened after all was said and done, the viewer was simply given two paragraphs of text to close our the show. It’s almost as if the writers or producers either ran out of time, or energy to properly close out the series. It really, really needed at least one more episode to wrap it all up, and give the viewers a sense of closure.

Jane Horrocks is great in this roll. I would enjoy seeing her in another series. She does a great job of showing the changes a year of being Prime Minister has on both her physical and physiological self. Very convincing.

I enjoyed this, even with the left wanting more ending.