New to TVNZ OnDemand in November

TVNZ OnDemand will stream the UK political drama Roadkill from November 6.

It stars Hugh Laurie as a populist Conservative MP whose rise to the top is jeopardised by the discovery of an illegitimate daughter who’s serving a prison sentence.

“Although it is set in a world not led by Brexit or the pandemic, David Hare’s four-parter is a reminder – as if we needed one – that political ambition is rarely pure,” raved The Guardian.

“It’s competently put together and the plot draws you in,” said a less-effusive Independent.

It yearns to make a statement about double standards and hypocrisy in public life, exposing these Tories who will do one thing in private, be it lining their own pockets or forgiving errant children, and then apply another rule to the rest of the country. For all its post-Brexit aspirations, though, this feels like a drama from an earlier time, with a traditional left-wing heart. However outlandish the fictional scheming on display, the real world is crazier, and we’ve seen this kind of conspiracy too many times before.

“It is too mannered and expositional to be realistic (in this way it reminded me of Bodyguard),” The Times said, “but it is welcome immersive escapism and not nearly as earnest and improbable as Hare’s last big TV offering, Collateral, which was like being subjected to weekly political sermons via water cannon.”