As the UK gets ready to have its seventh prime minister in 10 years, how long before a revolving door is installed at 10 Downing Street? As social media wags have pointed out, this is likely the first time in history that the UK has been looking for a new prime minister, James Bond and Time Lord at the same time.<\/p>\n
With the tribute film Rik Mayall: Magnificent B\u2019stard airing this week (Thursday at 9pm on Sky Documentaries) and Steven Moffat\u2019s drama Number 10 coming soon to Channel 4, it\u2019s time to conduct a poll on TV\u2019s best fictional British PMs.<\/p>\n
From villainous schemers to beleaguered leaders, here\u2019s our countdown of the all-time top 20.<\/p>\n
20. Stephen Fry as Alastair Davies \u2013 24: Live Another Day (2014)<\/p>\n
Dammit, Chloe, I\u2019m driving on the wrong side of the road! Jack Bauer came to London for this comeback series of the real-time preposto-thriller. The US president was in the UK to negotiate a treaty with PM Davies (Stephen Fry) \u2013 half David Cameron, half Boris Johnson, all horror \u2013 when assassins, hackers and armed drones all made nuisances of themselves. Only Kiefer Sutherland\u2019s butt-kicking Bauer could save the day. Fry\u2019s character was originally named Trevor Davies, presumably until producers looked at the plummy luvvie and realised he wasn\u2019t a Trevor.<\/p>\n
19. Hugh Laurie as Peter Laurence \u2013 Roadkill (2020)<\/p>\n
Anything Fry could do, his old comedy comrade Hugh Laurie could do more snakily. In David Hare\u2019s conspiracy drama, corrupt Conservative populist Laurence was beset by scandal. He not only had affairs and illegitimate children but was culpable in the deaths of several tenants in properties he owned. When a pesky journalist threatened to expose his plan to privatise the NHS, she was killed in a suspicious car crash. Laurence duly deposed the PM (Helen McCrory) and slithered into the top job.<\/p>\n
18. Robert Carlyle as Robert Sutherland \u2013 Cobra (2020-23)Robert Carlyle as Robert Sutherland in Cobra. Photograph: Sky<\/p>\n
Robert Carlyle portrayed the beleaguered Tory PM in three series of Sky\u2019s creaky political thriller. He was constantly packed off to the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms for emergency meetings about power grid failures, cyber attacks or eco protesters. No wonder he always looked so knackered.<\/p>\n
17. Rory Kinnear as Nicol Trowbridge \u2013 The Diplomat (2023-present)<\/p>\n
Rory Kinnear has played two different TV PMs. A certain one ranks higher. In Netflix\u2019s political thriller, tantrum-prone Trowbridge is a punchable leader who is suspected of orchestrating a terrorist attack on a British aircraft carrier and stirring up war with Russia to boost his public support. At least canny US ambassador Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) is on to him, the swine.<\/p>\n
16. Suranne Jones as Abigail Dalton \u2013 Hostage (2025)<\/p>\n
This twist-packed Netflix potboiler starred Suranne Jones as a plucky PM whose aid worker husband (Ashley \u201cBashy\u201d Thomas) was kidnapped during a state visit by the French president (Julie Delpy). As Dalton steadfastly refused to give in to blackmail and raced to unmask the terrorists, what followed was a tangled web of military spending cuts, NHS drug shortages, illegal migrant crossings and a briefcase bomb in Downing Street. It\u2019s the wooden lectern and Larry the cat we feel sorry for.<\/p>\n
15. Adeel Akhtar as Richard Eaves \u2013 Black Doves (2024-present)Adeel Akhtar as Richard Eaves in Black Doves. Photograph: Netflix<\/p>\n
Writer Joe Barton\u2019s riotous Netflix action thriller starred Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw as spies-for-hire, while Adeel Akhtar played against type as Tory PM Eaves. When it returns for a second season this autumn, Eaves is set to step down over his role in a cover-up, leaving the way clear for Knightley\u2019s politician husband (Andrew Buchan) to take his place. Handy.<\/p>\n
14. Pamela Salem as Maureen Graty \u2013 The West Wing (2005-06)<\/p>\n
All statespeople in Aaron Sorkin\u2019s wordy White House drama suffered in comparison to saintly president Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen). Naturally this included hawk-like Tory leader Graty (Pamela Salem), who popped up in season six when an Iranian fighter jet accidentally shot down a British passenger plane. Fond of quoting Churchill, she regarded Bartlet as a \u201cYankee-doodle windbag\u201d. Special relationship indeed.<\/p>\n
13. Bill Nighy as Alec Beasley \u2013 The Worricker Trilogy (2011-14)<\/p>\n
David Hare\u2019s star-studded BBC spy trilogy comprised a set of connected feature-length dramas: Page Eight, Turks & Caicos and Salting the Battlefield. Disillusioned MI5 intelligence analyst Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) became embroiled in corruption and murder when he learned that the PM (regular Hare collaborator Ralph Fiennes) was complicit in secret CIA torture camps. Fiennes played the venal Beasley as half Tony Blair, plotting a lucrative career after leaving office, and half cold-blooded Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
12. Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones \u2013 Doctor Who (2005-08)<\/p>\n
Penelope Wilton first popped up in \u201cNu Who\u201d as a backbench MP who helped Christopher Eccleston\u2019s ninth Doctor defeat the Slitheen, leading him to predict that she\u2019d make a great PM someday. By the era of David Tennant\u2019s 10th Doctor, Jones made an enemy of him by shooting down a retreating Sycorax spaceship. The Time Lord vengefully brought her down with six words which undermine any leader\u2019s authority: \u201cDon\u2019t you think she looks tired?\u201d She was replaced by Harold Saxon (John Simm), an alter ego of the Master, who vaporised his US counterpart and ordered aliens to kill one-tenth of the global population. Late came Jo Patterson (Harriet Walter), who was zapped by a Dalek in Downing Street, and the sinister Roger ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard), leader of the far-right Albion Party. Harriet Jones, however, was the Whoniverse\u2019s premier PM.<\/p>\n
11. Rakie Ayola as Opal Folami \u2013 (Noughts + Crosses, 2020-)<\/p>\n
The BBC adaptation of Malorie Blackman\u2019s alt-history novels conjured up a world where Europe was colonised by powerful West African nations. Folami (Rakie Ayola) was the leader of Albion, a self-governing colony of the African Empire, where racial segregation between Noughts and Crosses was strictly enforced. When Folami \u2013 a voice of reason in febrile times \u2013 dared to propose decriminalising interracial relations and de-escalate ethnic tensions, she was deposed by her hardline home secretary (Paterson \u201cJohnson from Peep Show\u201d Joseph).<\/p>\n
10. Robert Bathurst as Michael Phillips \u2013 My Dad\u2019s the Prime Minister (2003-04)<\/p>\n
How embarrassing to be the son of the PM. That was the premise of Ian Hislop and Nick Newman\u2019s sitcom, which began life on CBBC before being promoted to primetime. Twelve-year-old Dillon (Joe Prospero) was permanently cringing about his father, a New Labour-style leader (Cold Feet\u2019s Robert Bathurst) who\u2019d just been voted \u201cNaffest Man in Britain\u201d by Dillon\u2019s favourite pop magazine. His smarmy spin doctors ran an oppressive regime, keen to keep the over-protected kids out of trouble and out of the headlines. The PM even showed up Dillon by arriving at school sports day in a helicopter. Don\u2019t even get us started on his policy to introduce an extra hour\u2019s homework per day \u2013 just for boys.<\/p>\n
9. Jane Horrocks as Rosamund Pritchard \u2013 The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006)Jane Horrocks as Rosamund Pritchard in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. Photograph: BBC\/Phil Fisk\/Kudos<\/p>\n
Sally Wainwright\u2019s romp followed supermarket manager Ros Pritchard (Jane Horrocks), who was so angered by the state of British politics she decided to stand as an independent candidate in her Yorkshire home town. Her no-nonsense approach proved a vote-winner and she swept to the top office. She crowdsourced policies for her inaugural Queen\u2019s speech, including moving parliament to Bradford, but her principles were soon tested. Clean-up on aisle three!<\/p>\n
8. Emily Watson as Freya Gardner \u2013 The Politician\u2019s Husband (2013)<\/p>\n
Paula Milne\u2019s delicious sequel to her 1995 drama The Politician\u2019s Wife followed a Westminster power couple, played by David Tennant (him again) and Emily Watson, whose relationship was fatally undermined by scheming and scandal. In a final twist, his leadership bid failed and she became prime minister. The pragmatic pair stayed married for political purposes, with hubby swallowing his considerable pride to serve as his wife\u2019s deputy. That\u2019ll teach him.<\/p>\n
7. Tony Robinson as Baldrick \u2013 Blackadder: Back and Forth (1999)<\/p>\n
Talk about a cunning plan. In Blackadder the Third (1987), brainless dogsbody Baldrick (Tony Robinson) was elected as MP for the rotten borough (AKA \u201crubber button\u201d) of Dunny-on-the-Wold. This millennium special saw him and Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) accidentally build a time machine and hop through history, manipulating events for their own gain. By the time the pair reached the Millennium Dome circa 1999, Baldrick was a puppet PM under King Edmund III and Queen Marian of Sherwood (Kate Moss). Turnips all round.<\/p>\n
6. Rik Mayall as Alan B\u2019Stard \u2013 The New Statesman (1992)Rik Mayall as Alan B\u2019Stard in The New Statesman. Photograph: REX\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
One of the late Rik Mayall\u2019s most enduring characters, shamelessly self-serving MP Alan Beresford B\u2019Stard, wasn\u2019t what you\u2019d call a subtle satire on Thatcherite Conservatism, but he was an effective one. In the final episode of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran\u2019s sitcom, a snap election was called over membership of the EEC. As leader of the Eurosceptic \u201cNew Patriot Party\u201d, B\u2019Stard became an extra-parliamentary PM and proclaimed himself a dictatorial Lord Protector, boasting that Britain is now his \u201cplaything\u201d. And with that, he was \u201coff down to Stringfellows to commit adultery\u201d. Again.<\/p>\n
5. Rory Kinnear as Michael Callow \u2013 Black Mirror (2011)<\/p>\n