Absolute Power (comedy)
| Running time | approx. 30 min. per episode |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| TV adaptations | Absolute Power |
| Starring |
Stephen Fry John Bird Siobhan Hayes Tony Gardner (series 1–3 and special) Tamsin Greig (series 2) Tom George (series 3–4) Henry Hereford (series 1) Alex Lowe |
| Created by | Mark Tavener |
| Written by | Mark Tavener |
| Executive producer(s) | Paul Schlesinger |
| Original release | 5 January 2000 – 3 November 2006 |
| No. of series | 4 (plus 1 special) |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Website | Absolute Power |
| Absolute Power | |
|---|---|
Series title card
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| Genre | Comedy satire |
| Created by | Mark Tavener |
| Directed by |
John Morton Tristram Shapeero |
| Starring |
Stephen Fry John Bird James Lance Zoe Telford Sally Bretton Nick Burns |
| Composer(s) | Ben Bartlett |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jon Plowman |
| Producer(s) | Paul Schlesinger |
| Running time | approx. 29 mins. per episode |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 10 November 2003 – 25 August 2005 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | In the Red |
Absolute Power is a British comedy series, set in the offices of Prentiss McCabe, a fictional public relations company (or 'government-media relations consultancy') in London, run by Charles Prentiss (Stephen Fry) and Martin McCabe (John Bird).
It started in 2000 on BBC Radio 4, lasting until 2004 with the fourth and final radio series. A six-part television series ran on BBC Two towards the end of 2003; the second six-episode television series ran on BBC Two on Thursdays at 10 pm from 21 July to 25 August 2005. A one-off radio episode was broadcast on 3 November 2006.
The title is taken from a quotation by the historian Lord Acton: "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
The series was devised and written by Mark Tavener, and logically follows the series In the Red, In the Balance, In the Chair, and In the End which he wrote with Peter Baynham. In some of these, Prentiss and McCabe (again played by Fry and Bird) are elevated members of the BBC, before getting kicked out. Indeed, there is a scene on the last page of the novel In the Red, in which the newly appointed director general of the BBC gives them the sack. The idea is that after this they created Prentiss McCabe, which is the subject of Absolute Power. The tone and style of Absolute Power is so different from the In the... series that it can be regarded as a totally different programme. It was produced, like so much of Tavener's work, by Dawn Ellis.
Prentiss is a man without morals, whose only objectives are money and power. He is portrayed as being the brains, while McCabe, though an excellent speech-writer, lacks his motivation and insight. McCabe's ambitions include retiring and drinking claret, and he spends his life in a state of cynicism, lack of energy and boredom. McCabe (who describes himself as "a first class mind") does sometimes have good ideas, but they usually become Prentiss's ideas by the time they are presented to the client, and he lacks the energy to make more than mild objections. McCabe is also more likely to baulk at a scheme for moral reasons than Prentiss.
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