TV's Best Fictional British Prime Ministers: A Countdown
As the United Kingdom prepares for its seventh prime minister in ten years, the revolving door at 10 Downing Street seems to spin faster than ever. With social media wags noting that this may be the first time the UK has simultaneously sought a new prime minister, James Bond, and a Time Lord, it is an opportune moment to examine how television has portrayed the nation's leaders. From villainous schemers to beleaguered heroes, here is a countdown of the all-time top 20 fictional British PMs on TV.
20. Stephen Fry as Alastair Davies – 24: Live Another Day (2014)
In this comeback series of the real-time thriller, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) travels to London to protect the US president negotiating a treaty with PM Davies. Fry's character, originally named Trevor Davies, blends elements of David Cameron and Boris Johnson, creating a figure of pure horror when assassins, hackers, and armed drones strike. Only Bauer's butt-kicking can save the day.
19. Hugh Laurie as Peter Laurence – Roadkill (2020)
In David Hare's conspiracy drama, corrupt Conservative populist Laurence faces scandals involving affairs, illegitimate children, and culpability in tenant deaths. When a journalist threatens to expose his plan to privatise the NHS, she dies in a suspicious car crash. Laurence eventually deposes the PM (Helen McCrory) and slithers into the top job, showcasing Laurie's snakier side compared to his comedy partner Fry.
18. Robert Carlyle as Robert Sutherland – Cobra (2020-23)
Carlyle portrays a beleaguered Tory PM across three series of Sky's political thriller. Constantly rushed to Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms for emergencies—power grid failures, cyber attacks, eco protests—Sutherland always looks exhausted, reflecting the relentless pressure of leadership.
17. Rory Kinnear as Nicol Trowbridge – The Diplomat (2023-present)
Kinnear plays two different TV PMs; this one ranks lower. In Netflix's political thriller, tantrum-prone Trowbridge is a punchable leader suspected of orchestrating a terrorist attack on a British aircraft carrier to stir up war with Russia for political gain. Canny US ambassador Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) is onto him.
16. Suranne Jones as Abigail Dalton – Hostage (2025)
In this Netflix potboiler, Jones plays a plucky PM whose aid worker husband is kidnapped during a state visit. As Dalton refuses blackmail and races to unmask terrorists, the plot weaves military spending cuts, NHS drug shortages, illegal migrant crossings, and a briefcase bomb in Downing Street.
15. Adeel Akhtar as Richard Eaves – Black Doves (2024-present)
Joe Barton's riotous Netflix action thriller features Akhtar playing against type as Tory PM Eaves. When the series returns for a second season, Eaves is set to step down over a cover-up, clearing the way for Keira Knightley's politician husband to take his place.
14. Pamela Salem as Maureen Graty – The West Wing (2005-06)
In Aaron Sorkin's wordy White House drama, hawkish Tory leader Graty appears in season six after an Iranian fighter jet accidentally shoots down a British passenger plane. Fond of quoting Churchill, she regards President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) as a 'Yankee-doodle windbag'.
13. Ralph Fiennes as Alec Beasley – The Worricker Trilogy (2011-14)
David Hare's BBC spy trilogy sees disillusioned MI5 analyst Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) uncover corruption when he learns the PM is complicit in secret CIA torture camps. Fiennes plays Beasley as half Tony Blair, plotting a lucrative post-office career, and half cold-blooded Vladimir Putin.
12. Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones – Doctor Who (2005-08)
Wilton first appears as a backbench MP who helps the Ninth Doctor defeat the Slitheen, leading him to predict she'll be a great PM. By the Tenth Doctor's era, Jones makes an enemy by shooting down a retreating Sycorax spaceship. The Doctor vengefully brings her down with six words: 'Don't you think she looks tired?' She is replaced by Harold Saxon (John Simm), an alter ego of the Master.
11. Rakie Ayola as Opal Folami – Noughts + Crosses (2020-)
In the BBC adaptation of Malorie Blackman's alt-history novels, Europe is colonised by West African nations. Folami leads Albion, a self-governing colony where racial segregation is enforced. When she proposes decriminalising interracial relations, she is deposed by her hardline home secretary.
10. Robert Bathurst as Michael Phillips – My Dad's the Prime Minister (2003-04)
Ian Hislop and Nick Newman's sitcom follows 12-year-old Dillon Phillips, permanently embarrassed by his father, a New Labour-style PM. The PM's smarmy spin doctors run an oppressive regime, and he even arrives at school sports day by helicopter. His policy to introduce an extra hour of homework per day for boys only adds to Dillon's woes.
9. Jane Horrocks as Rosamund Pritchard – The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006)
Sally Wainwright's romp follows supermarket manager Ros Pritchard, who stands as an independent candidate after being angered by British politics. Her no-nonsense approach wins her the top office. She crowdsources policies for her inaugural Queen's speech, including moving parliament to Bradford, but her principles are soon tested.
8. Emily Watson as Freya Gardner – The Politician's Husband (2013)
Paula Milne's sequel to The Politician's Wife follows a Westminster power couple played by David Tennant and Emily Watson. Their relationship is undermined by scheming and scandal. In a final twist, his leadership bid fails and she becomes PM. The pragmatic pair stay married for political purposes, with hubby serving as her deputy.
7. Tony Robinson as Baldrick – Blackadder: Back and Forth (1999)
In this millennium special, brainless dogsbody Baldrick and Edmund Blackadder accidentally build a time machine and manipulate history. By the time they reach the Millennium Dome in 1999, Baldrick is a puppet PM under King Edmund III and Queen Marian of Sherwood (Kate Moss).
6. Rik Mayall as Alan B'Stard – The New Statesman (1992)
Mayall's shamelessly self-serving MP Alan Beresford B'Stard is a subtle satire on Thatcherite Conservatism. In the final episode, a snap election over EEC membership sees B'Stard, as leader of the Eurosceptic New Patriot Party, become an extra-parliamentary PM and proclaim himself dictatorial Lord Protector, boasting that Britain is his 'plaything'.
5. Rory Kinnear as Michael Callow – Black Mirror (2011)
Charlie Brooker's debut episode, 'The National Anthem', features a PM forced to commit bestiality on live television to secure a hostage's release. Four years later, real-life leader David Cameron faced accusations of something similar during his Oxford days, which he dismissed as 'false and ludicrous'. Brooker's prophetic comedy remains a #snoutrage.
4. Emma Thompson as Vivienne Rook – Years and Years (2019)
Thompson sports a power-bob and red suit as an outspoken celebrity businesswoman who leads the far-right populist Four Star Party. In Russell T Davies's chilling dystopian drama, fascistic Rook—'think Marine Le Pen meets Katie Hopkins'—says she 'doesn't give a fuck' about the Israel-Palestine conflict on Question Time. She proposes a national IQ test barring those scoring below 70 from voting and becomes the first PM charged with murder over concentration camps for asylum seekers.
3. Ray McAnally as Harry Perkins – A Very British Coup (1988)
This Channel 4 miniseries, described as 'one of the founding myths of Corbynism', follows Labour leader Perkins capitalising on a banking crisis to topple the Tories. Once in power, he implements a radical socialist agenda: unilateral nuclear disarmament, open government, abolishing the House of Lords, and closer ties with Moscow. A horrified establishment plays dirty to thwart him.
2. Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart – House of Cards trilogy (1990-95)
The BBC adaptation of Michael Dobbs's novel trilogy debuted the week before Margaret Thatcher's downfall. Richardson's machiavellian Tory chief whip—'FU' to many—bullies, blackmails, and murders his way to power. He frequently breaks the fourth wall, a gimmick repeated in the Netflix remake. Should Urquhart be number one? You might very well think that. He couldn't possibly comment.
1. Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker – Yes, Prime Minister (1986-87)
Arguably TV's sharpest political satire, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's Whitehall sitcom depicts bungling minister Hacker's rise to power. To get anything done, well-meaning Hacker must outwit the civil service, personified by cunning mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne), a master of obfuscation who baffles foes with long-winded jargon. MPs have voted it the greatest political comedy of all time, and it was famously Margaret Thatcher's favourite programme. Fun feline fact: Humphrey, the Downing Street cat in the 1990s, was named after Hawthorne's character.
