[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Red in tooth and politics – B’Stard is back[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
Audrey Gillan
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Tuesday March 21, 2006
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]He was the archetypal Tory who was more sleazy than anything in the real life Conservative party. The comic character Alan B’Stard came to represent the worst excesses of the Thatcher government.[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Now, he has defected to New Labour, a “rightwing party full of nice looking girls” and is in charge of the “peerage pricelist”.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]He’s Tony Blair’s enforcer, the man who hired Alastair Campbell “to bully the cowardly” and Peter Mandelson “to sweet-talk the vain”. Played by comedian Rik Mayall, Alan B’Stard is back, but this time the key character in ITV’s The New Statesman is to tread the boards in the Blair B’Stard Project. Set to tour theatres, the political satire is written by the series’ original writers, Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, and the script will incorporate topical scandals and gaffes. “He has just changed the colour of his rosette,” the writers said.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Last seen on the small screen in 1992, B’Stard is said to have switched to New Labour in 1994. He bankrolled the party and “is the only one who really knows where the weapons of mass destruction are”. His creators say their aim is to “shame Tony Blair into packing it in”.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“This is a terrible time for Tony Blair and New Labour. The government is reeling – it’s three years since the invasion of Iraq and we still don’t know why that happened,” said Gran. “Only one man can save Tony Blair, and that’s Alan B’Stard.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Marks, still a card-carrying member of the Labour party, added: “We will never forget that Tony Blair has taken this country to war.” Theatre, the writers say, will give them the chance to be more current, with sharp changes in dialogue. The show opens in Brighton on April 19.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006[/FONT]
