Read A Preview Of The Politician's Husband - On BBC Two Tonight From 9pm




David Tennant's gripping new TV drama, The Politician's Husband begins on BBC Two tonight. The three part series explores power and betrayal in the high-profile world of British politics. Read a preview below.


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The Politician’s Husband, the new drama series by Paula Milne is described as a companion piece to the writer’s earlier drama for Channel 4, The Politician’s Wife, and again deals with the themes of a high profile couple in an inter-marriage power struggle and a wife stepping out from behind her husband’s shadow.

David Tennant plays Aiden Hoynes, a high flying member of the cabinet and the golden boy of UK politics. At the opening of the drama he certainly appears to have it all, a loyal wife (also an MP), the children, the nanny and clear support from his friends and allies within the party. However, he soon takes a mis-step that threatens to bring his whole comfortable lifestyle crashing down.

Using a criticism of the Prime Minister’s immigration policies as a springboard, Hoynes resigns his cabinet post and launches a leadership bid. What he doesn’t count on is the cloaked ambition of his close friend and fellow Member of the House Bruce Babbish (a devious Ed Stoppard) whose duplicitous betrayal leaves Hoynes reeling, devastated and confined to the back benches. To add insult to injury, his wife Freya Gardner (Emily Watson) is promoted to the post of Secretary for Work and Pensions. Loyal to her husband she intends to decline, but the scheming Hoynes sees a way to exploit her good fortune to further his own ends and to use Freya as a tool to get his revenge on those who have thwarted his ambition

With his career on the decline Hoynes is forced too to face up to the realities of the family life and its challenges that he focused on his work to avoid. They aren’t, it emerges, the perfect family. Freya and Aiden have their tensions which are exacerbated by their respective relationships with their son Noah (Oscar Kennedy), who has Asperger syndrome. Dissatisfied with his lot in life, Hoynes counts on the influence of Freya to put things right again for him, but now Freya is starting to realise her own ambitions and enjoys the novel experience. The little supportive wife is no more.

Much has been made of the sexual politics that mirror the couple’s public positions but to focus on this – and likewise on David Tennant’s shiny blond hair – would be very unjust towards a well crafted drama with a focus on betrayal and trust at its core and an exploration of the struggle for women to be recognised in their own right in any professional arena. It also tackles the attraction of power and the sickening slide of disempowerment. With robust performances from all including Roger Allam as self-serving Chief Whip Marcus Brock and Jack Shepherd as Aiden’s father Joe the first episode, although clichéd in places, certainly offers up food for thought in anticipation of the next instalment.


The Politician's Husband begins on BBC Two tonight at 9pm




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