The Amazing Mrs Pritchard

British tv series are usually very good. Even some comedies can be good, though there’s no guarantee. Some are very strange, looking at them from a Swedish point of view. One that I appreciated a lot while it was still on, was The Vicar of Dibley. It’s about a female vicar in a horrid little village in England. The vicar is played by hysterically funny Dawn French.

That was quite a few years ago, but more recently, there was another, newer series – The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. Here’s another incredibly funny woman. The main character is played by Jane Horrocks who’s been in several other sitcoms. In this one, she plays the manager of a shop, who by accident gets into politics and ends up suddenly becoming the Prime Minister of Britain.

It’s really hard to keep from laughing, but it’s not only a comedy. I think the writers have been able to get in a couple of digs against the political system and all stupid old customs in it.

Unfortunately for Mrs Pritchard, she hadn’t quite realized how thoroughly a politician, and worst of all, her family, get vetted. Her husband has a skeleton in the closet and her eldest daughter screws up too. Among other things, she poses in the nude, which gets blown up out of proportion, literally. One morning there’s a giant image of her projected against the House of Parliament.

Her dad has made a bigger mistake, and unfortunately, he can’t stop himself from telling his daughter, who ends up telling her mother, and that’s the end of a brief success story. Mr Pritchard is played by Steven Mackintosh, who’s been in several tv-series and movies. A very good actor. The girl who plays the youngest daughter is very funny. The older one is pretty funny too, but I can’t help thinking she was picked mainly because of her looks.

Several minor roles are interesting too. You get to see many familiar faces. Mostly women, but there’s also a really cute young man, who has an affair with a considerably older woman.

In any case, this is a short series of few episodes, that most people should be able to follow.