Sick of Hillary? Try Mrs. Pritchard
Sometimes, something comes along just when you need it most. Just when I thought that Hillary Clinton was, for me, heading for George W. Bush status (i.e. someone who I absolutely cannot watch anymore on television), along comes Jane Horrocks to restore my faith in politicians who happen to be women. Horrocks, whose Bubble on “Absolutely Fabulous” was TV’s greatest dingbat since Jean Stapleton, is playing the title role in the five-part series “The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard,” which this past Sunday began airing on PBS. Mrs. Pritchard comes from the north of England. She is the manager of a supermarket until her comments to a reporter, about how useless politicans are, propel her into a nationwide campaign. Before you can say “Huh?”, Mrs. Pritchard has become Prime Minister. The story of a common person propelled into a national campaign isn’t novel at the movies. There’s “Dave” and last year’s “Man of the Year” and, for film buffs, the 1932 picture “The Phantom President.” What’s ab-fab about the PBS broadcast is that the heroine is played by Horrocks. It isn’t just the sight of this Bubble-head standing up in the House of Commons and blasting forth with near-Churchillian eloquence that delights; in an American context, it’s the fantasy that an upstart out there in some small town taps into our frustration with all the tight-ass, tightly scripted people running for President in 2008 and blasts them all away almost overnight. If only!
