Nigel Planer tells of cancelled satirical film

The Comic Strip planned to make a satirical film in which David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson were all Russian sleeper  agents.

Nigel Planer, who has been in the series since its start in 1981, revealed details of the plot to The Times diary column today. He said the idea was that the trio were all Russians who had been trained in Moscow to behave like Old Etonians. 

They were then ‘air-dropped into the New Forest where their handler was Dominic Cummings. We were going to call it Lie Another Day.’

Planer was due to take the Cummings role in the Channel 4 film, he revealed at The Oldie lunch.

It’s not the first time details of the the thwarted project have become public. In a 2023 interview, Comic Strip creator Peter Richardson blamed interference from the production company assigned to help make the film for scuppering it.

‘They completely fucked it,’ he told  the British Comedy Guide. ‘They said they needed control of casting and crew. And I said no, sorry, when we did Five Go Mad In Dorset, nobody knew who we were and we were allowed to pick anybody we wanted. Now you're telling me you want control? You can't do that.’

He also said the film would also have sent up the other controversies of Tory rule including the treatment of asylum seekers; Theresa May's gaffe-prone premiership; the expensive redecorations of Johnson's Downing Street flat and  Matt Hancock's affair with adviser Gina Coladangelo.

Published: 18 Feb 2026