Absolute Power (radio)



"Alison: Surely one agency can’t possibly represent two people going for the same job. There must be rules about this sort of thing. Like, I don’t know, estate agents not acting for buyer and seller. Charles: Not only can you represent the buyer and the seller, but you can steal all the light bulbs, pee in the sink and then go and live in the house after they’ve bought it. PR means never having to say you’re wrong."

Absolute Power, a BBC radio comedy about PR firm Prentiss McCabe, began as a Spin-Off of an adaptation of a comedy whodunnit. The radio series was subsequently adapted for television. The two main characters are Charles Prentiss (a man with no scruples whatsoever) and Martin McCabe (who has scruples, but is usually too lazy to apply them). In the radio series they were assisted by Sandy, a sensible young woman on a training scheme, and later by Clive, a total incompetent. Another recurring character is Archie, their regular government contact.

Stephen Fry and John Bird reprise their radio roles for the television series, which also gives Prentiss McCabe more staff, particularly the efficient but honest Alison and the natural-born liar James. In the radio series they mostly handle government work, but in the TV series they are more likely to be representing celebrities. Both series are nonetheless satires, one on politics, the other on the nature of celebrity.

The radio show lasted from 2000 to 2004, plus one special episode broadcast in 2006. A total of 22 episodes in four seasons. The television series lasted from November, 2003 to August, 2005. A total of 12 episodes in two seasons.

Not to be confused with the book by David Baldacci, which was made into a Clint Eastwood film, although both are based on Lord Acton's observation that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Charles Prentiss would probably add "And the problem with that is?"

"Martin: I decided to stop proving myself when I was eight. I came top in a spelling test, I thought "well, that's good for 70 or 80 years, I think I'll put my feet up.""
 * Actor Allusion: Charles Prentiss calls his young associates "Bright Young Things" and occasionally quotes Oscar Wilde.
 * A Simple Plan
 * Actor Shared Background: One episode of the radio series features a journalist blackmailing Charles about a check-forging incident in his past. Stephen Fry spent some time in prison for fraud when he was a very young man. (Martin doesn't mind at all - he thinks it's "quite stylish.")
 * Anything That Moves: Jamie.
 * The Barnum: Charles.
 * Bedmate Reveal:  in the first episode of series two.
 * Biting the Hand Humor - the radio episode "Radio 3" in particular.
 * And also the radio episode "The BBC", perhaps even more.
 * Bolivian Army Ending: Parodied at the end of series one of the television series.
 * Brand X: The UK's bestselling newspaper, a redtop famous for pictures of women's breasts, is called the Daily News.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Martin doesn't feel he was put on this earth to earn a living, and was rather looking forward to Prentiss McCabe folding in bankruptcy because it would mean he could spend more time at his club. He's successful mostly through his association with Charles Prentiss's lust for money and shark-like killer instincts. Once he does decide to do something, however, there's apparently no stopping him. Charles puts in long hours and tries to make it look effortless, Martin lazes about for days on end but is able to come up with the perfect marketing solution at a stroke. And he did get a first at Cambridge.

"Charles: The Downing Street retainer? Martin: Ah... ah. Charles: The flurry of 'We want Gordon' press stories. They wouldn't have anything to do with you, would they? Only -- and I mean this in the nicest possible way -- you do, on occasion, go peculiar. I'm not impugning your sanity, stability, or taste in trousers, but you do, once in a while, go peculiar. Martin: I'm not denying it. Charles: They were you, weren't they? Martin: To some extent. Charles: And the Downing Street retainer? Martin: Is not actually being retained at the moment. Or ever again, in fact. Charles: Martin, why? Martin: Because! ... I don't know quite how to say this without being sick, but I thought if I went just a bit peculiar, Archie might, might feel impelled to call you back."
 * Bumbling Sidekick: Clive
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Martin, a bit. He sometimes has very, very good ideas, which explains why Charles keeps him around.
 * Butt Monkey: Clive in the radio series, and Alison in the television version. The board with the firm's strategies often includes lines like "blame Alison" or "make Alison do it".
 * To a lesser extent in the radio series, Maurice, the apparently French waiter at Martin's club - constantly referred to as "Morris" and the subject of many a withering, unprovoked insult from Charles.
 * Catch Phrase: Catch word, primarily in the radio series. Charles, architect of many a cunning wheeze. It was all a wheeze. No one out-wheezes Prentiss McCabe.
 * Martin in the radio series often says he was going to do something "but then I decided I couldn't be arsed."
 * Celebrity Paradox: most of the celebrities are made up, but real ones are referenced all the time.
 * The Chessmaster: Charles.
 * Cloudcuckoolander / The Ditz: Clive in the radio series, Alison in the television adaptation.
 * Consummate Liar: Charles; James
 * Deadpan Snarker: Martin, whose opposition to Charles' unethical ideas is usually limited to sarcastic sniping.
 * Destructo-Nookie: Charles and Gayle spend a night in a hotel room and the firm is billed 2000 pounds for a new bed.
 * Eagle Land: Of the second flavour. The ambassador in the television series. Also Martin's view of the United States, hence his deep-seated anti-American sentiment.
 * Dumbass Has a Point: In the television series, Charles uses Alison's ideas this way.
 * Expy: Charles Prentiss reminds one quite powerfully of a certain Sir Humphrey Appleby.
 * In-franchise example: Clive's radio characterization seems to have been transferred to Alison in the telly version.
 * Faux Affably Evil: Charles, usually with a Cheshire Cat Grin.
 * "At Prentiss McCabe we care deeply about the little people. Unless they get in our way, and then we hurt them."
 * Fish Out of Water: Charles, in "US Presidential Campaign". He's long wanted to take Prentiss McCabe international, and finally gets his chance when he's recruited to spin for the Bush reelection campaign. Unfortunately for Charles, it seems his methods and ideas are "too crude and simplistic" for US politics.
 * (Radio Series) For all of Charles's A PR God Am I self-assurance, he's a bit hopeless everywhere but the Westminster village.
 * Flanderization In the radio series, Charles is a cynical, skillful schemer who isn't averse to occasional threats and blackmail, but glimpses of a softer, more romantic and idealistic side sometimes peek through. (For instance, he has some sympathies with social reformers.) In the TV version, he's absolutely diabolical and revels in it.
 * Martin's character goes through this between In the Red and Absolute Power. Martin is shown in the mother series to be a rather attentive, conscientious manager in the BBC hierarchy, though he doesn't share Charles's boundless, bloodthirsty ambition. By Absolute Power, he's quite possibly the laziest man in London.
 * Friendship Moment: A small one between Martin and Charles in "Crash and Burn", but not at all sappy. More a celebration of magnificent bastardry.
 * A small moment from Charles, in the radio special: "I miss you, Martin."
 * And then he hangs up. "And that's all of that you'll be getting for the next twenty years."
 * The radio series proper ends on a cozy note. Charles has finally been given his chance in America, working on the Bush reelection campaign, while Martin stews in London. But they're reunited in the end:

"BBC 3 Director: Et tu, Brutus? Charles: Brute! Brute! It's vocative, for God's sake."
 * Glad I Thought of It: Martin's ideas usually become Charles' ideas by the time the client hears them.
 * This was a bit different in the first series of the radio show. Normally Martin would say something that inadvertently became Charles' inspiration. Only during later series did Charles begin to deliberately take Martin's ideas.
 * Grammar Nazi: Charles, mostly. Martin as well, depending on how snarky he's feeling at any particular moment.
 * Charles has also demonstrated a tendency toward this in Latin.

"Charles: Martin, do I detect a soupçon of ennui? Martin: A whole bowlful."
 * And he's quite merciless about Archie's poor French pronunciation. ("Try that accent in Paris, and you'll find whole new vistas of loneliness opening up...")
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Charles and Martin. They'll be spinning and scheming until death parts them. Well... Charles will. Martin will be comfortably along for the ride.
 * Jerkass: Jamie
 * Jerk Justifications: Charles proudly declares, "If there's one thing better than a first-class mind, it's being a first-class bastard."
 * Kavorka Man: James in the TV version.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Not often, but when John Bird corpses while Martin is speculating on the election of Iain Duncan-Smith as PM, it's Stephen Fry rather than Charles who asks him to repeat it: 'It's my birthday!"
 * Magnificent Bastard: Crisis management PR is essentially Xanatos Speed Chess, so there are a lot of them about. In-universe, Charles gets plenty of recognition as one.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: In the radio series, Maurice the waiter, who's name Charles always pronounces "Morris".
 * Mythology Gag: Martin's ex-wife is a crime novelist whose books are based on finding a profession everyone hates (plumbers, executives, medical receptionists) and then creating a Serial Killer who bumps them off. This was the format of the comedy whodunnits Charles and Martin first appeared in, with the victims being bank managers (In The Red), dentists (In The Chair) and journalists (In The End).
 * Nazi Nobleman: Prentiss Mc Cabe represents a group of them in the fifth episode of the first television series. Charles is excited about this, calling it "the ultimate PR challenge".
 * Newscaster Cameo: Various BBC (and occasionally ITV) newscasters appear to interview or report on the Client of the Week.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: while some major clients will be fairly obvious expies of real people, the show frequently averts this for throwaway gags. Often only first names are used, so it's perfectly obvious who they're talking about but the lawyers have nothing to get upset about.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Martin. There's a lot more going on in his head than he lets on. He has a practiced vacant stare to lull people into a false sense of security. His slovenly appearance puts clients at ease (and sometimes actually builds confidence: clients figure any man willing to go around London looking like Martin does must be something special).
 * The Other Darrin: In series 4, Archie goes through a voice change from Tony Gardner (Dan Miller in The Thick of It) to Alex Lowe, and then goes back to Gardner for the special.
 * Overly Pre-Prepared Gag: One episode in the TV series is devoted almost entirely to one of these  This is even more of a cringe moment as
 * Oxbridge: Martin read Philosophy at Cambridge. And got a first, has he ever mentioned that he got a first?
 * Phrase Catcher: Martin, who is "brilliant, but fundamentally unsound."
 * Precision F-Strike: When, he gives an uncharacteristically straightforward "Oh shit."
 * Pungeon Masters: Charles and Martin's speech is liberally peppered with puns.

"Charles: I didn't take you to dinner in Islington and say 'Look here, I ought to be the senior partner, but I'll buy you a squid ink risotto.' Martin: No no no, it was more a case of 'let's get together the two of us, over a glass of champagne'. Charles: Your command of popular culture always has done you credit. Martin: 'I've got the looks, you've got the brains, let's make lots of money.'"
 * Refuge in Audacity: "Crash and Burn"
 * Right Behind Me: When Charles returns from prison, in the middle of Jamie's unflattering description of him.
 * Running Gag: In the radio series Charles would always meet Archie (his government contact) in a deserted location, such as the campaign headquarters for an unpopular politician.
 * In the first radio series, the Harold Dixon account. It's already lying fallow in Martin's pending tray in episode one, and escalates to a series of lawsuits by episode six. All off-camera.
 * When his unseen antics become too intolerable, Charles bankrupts Sir Harold and gets him arrested by the fraud squad. Because he can.
 * Seinfeldian Conversation: Charles and Martin have their own term for it: "irrelevant mental meandering". Martin is the only one who can shut Charles up when he gets on this tack, much to Archie's annoyance.
 * Martin likes to wend the conversation this way to take the piss out of Charles, usually when Charles is feeling very keen and uptight about some business opportunity. There's a particularly triumphant example in "Mayor of London", as Martin articulates his theory as to why there is pan-fried plaice on the menu, while the haddock is only fried...
 * Separated by a Common Language: A meta-example, demonstrating the perennial difficulties of writing dialogue even in other English dialects. The occasional characters from the United States speak in slightly off ways. One uses "nous", British slang, and another claims she spent time "reading" a subject at university and describes Al Gore as "standing" for election, phrases uncommon in mainstream American English. (It's possible that the latter studied in the UK, which would account for the trans-Atlantic phrasing. But it's never mentioned in the episode.)
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Martin and Charles, mixed with Sophisticated As Hell.
 * Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Gayle Shand, Charles' ex and owner of a rival PR firm in the radio version.
 * Smoky Gentlemen's Club: Martin's club is a benign version of this trope. It's an ossified place full of old men snoring loudly under their newspapers, which is just how Martin likes it.
 * Sound to Screen Adaptation
 * Spanner in the Works: "Ah, Clive, industrial sabotage on legs."
 * Spoof Aesop: Charles, our Magnificent Bastard near-Villain Protagonist who without remorse lies, cheats, backstabs and blackmails, spends some time in prison in series two after having been found guilty in a perjury trial. When he returns, he tells the firm that he has learned his lesson. His new resolution, his new code of behavior to mend the error of his ways? "No more Mr. Nice Guy."
 * Too Soon: The TV episode in which a member of the Bin Ladin family wants to buy British Airways was postponed due to the London bombings.
 * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Charles.
 * Waxing Lyrical: Frequently, usually cited as "a quotation from the classics."

"Cat (on lending Charles her flat): There's a corner shop to the right, and a great kebab place next door. There's also a good bus route into town... Charles: We've all died and gone to our own particular hell."
 * Wicked Cultured: The nearly-villainous Charles Prentiss.


 * Woman Scorned: Gayle in the radio version, who's determined to see Prentiss McCabe fail because of her former relationship with Charles. (He left her when she told him she was married.)
 * Also a Subverted Trope in the case of Martin's ex-wife. She seems scorned, but it seems she wasn't very bothered, and mostly wrote a very slanderous story based on him purely for the money.

"Gentlemen... and Clive. A toast, to Prentiss McCabe."