Jo Caulfield

The first to go his blunt-speaking No 2, Geoffrey Webb, played by stand-up Alistair Barrie as a popular Vince Cable type, important for keeping the grassroots onside, who quits on a point of principle sacrificed in the name of coalition compromise. This sparks a by-election, and the chain of events that drives Cooper so furious with frustration.

The set-up for all this is a little bit sluggish, as we get introduced to key players including Jo Caulfied as the Lib Dem’s ice-cool chief whip, Angela Hornby, and a scene-stealing Phill Jupitus as the PM’s creepily camp, oleaginous envoy Sir Francis Whitford, sowing the seeds of his enemy’s destruction. ‘You can always trust the Tories,’ he asserts witht a sinister hiss.

Yet while the plot creeps along, the writing is confident, with some wry, knowing lines playing up the stereotypes of the ruthless Conservatives and hippy Lib Dems rather surprised to find some of their members in Cabinet. Co-creator Khan is a Labour councillor so might be expected to have some insight into how parties see each other – even if he takes a bit of a liberty with the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 to be able to pull off a crucial plot point.

As the pressure ramps up, things become more interesting – and more funny; starting with the watershed moment when we meet the prospective candidate parachuted in to fight that crucial by-election against the defector Webb. John Dorney puts in an hilarious turn as a twitchy, dim, alcoholic lawyer as the increasingly worried party elite watch him rehearse what he will say on the stump.

Although it’s an enjoyable hour with great-to-fantastic performances, Coalition doesn’t get the full vote, because of its looser moments, and because it doesn’t manage to take us into new territory. There’s something of the feeling that we’ve seen all this conniving political satire before – even if the parties and the situations are slightly different. But still a decent effort.