Brexit: The Uncivil War Review - 4 Ups & 4 Downs

Ups

4. The Supporting Cast

This may be Benedict Cumberbatch's show, but the acting talent around him is very, very good too.

As anyone who has ever seen him in anything will attest, Rory Kinnear is brilliant in everything and eminently watchable, so seeing him here as Remain key player Craig Oliver is great. Likewise, John Heffernan is great as Leave lobbyist Matthew Elliott.

The other performances are more like caricatures as they seek to ape real figures and for the most part they're ingenius. Simon Paisley Day is brilliant as Douglas Carswell, Oliver Maltman is excellent as Michael Gove and Richard Goulding shines as Boris Johnson. They're so good in fact that their performances come across as almost affectionate.

Even more minor performances like Nicholas Day as John Mills and the wonderful Mark Gatiss as the voice of Peter Mandelson stand out as both thoroughly well-researched and brilliantly executed.

Paul Ryan and Lee Boardman also shine as Nigel Farage and Arron Banks, but they're given rather more obviously barbed material to work with. We're clearly supposed to feel a certain way about them, but there's no faulting the performances.