‘Number 10’s First Images Include Larry the Cat
The first photos include the show’s real star, who plays the famous Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, Larry the Cat.
The noise I emitted the first time I saw the news that Steven Moffat’s next project was a screwball workplace political comedy called Number 10 was not polite. Moffat is a bit of a lightning rod in the political entertainment space, a man who did a lot to push Doctor Who into a more diverse direction without ever sticking his neck out, basically establishing the doors that Chris Chibnall and Russell T. Davies walked through while refusing to cross them himself.
No matter how people felt about Moffat’s tenure, or his rather horrendously creepy The Time Traveler’s Wife that followed, you cannot argue that Moffat is absolutely great at writing His Girl Friday-style screwball comedy. The actual plot may not make a lick of sense, but you’ll be so busy laughing, you won’t care. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen on prestige TV to “crack-fic.”
While part of me is pretty sure I’ll get mad a time or seventeen while watching it, Number 10’s synopsis sounds like the plot of the maddest Doctor Who episode, up there alongside “Let’s Kill Hitler,” or “A Good Man Goes To War.” Moreover, the first photos understand me. They include the show’s real star, who plays the famous Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, Larry the Cat.
Here’s the synopsis:
There’s a Prime Minister in the attic, a coffee bar in the basement, and a wallpapered labyrinth of romance, crisis, and heartbreak in between. Set in the only terrace house in history with mice and a nuclear deterrent, it’s the only knock-through in the world where a hangover can start a war. The government will be fictional and unspecific, but the problems will be real. We’ll never know which party is in power, because once the whole world hits the fan, it barely matters. This is a show about the building and everyone inside. Not just the Prime Minister upstairs, but the conspiracy theorist who runs the cafe three floors below, the man who repairs the lift that never works, the madly ambitious ‘advisors’ fighting for office space in cupboards. Oh, and of course, the cat.
A drama about one of the most famous addresses in the world, Number 10 is all of Britain in a house: it’s British history under one roof. It’s how we all got into the mess we’re in. It’s also our only hope of getting out of it.
The new series stars Rafe Spall (Trying) as the Prime Minister, Katherine Kelly (The Crow Girl) as the Chief of Staff, and Jenna Coleman (Victoria) as the Deputy Chief of Staff. The rest of the cast is also pretty stacked, including Laura Haddock (Downton Abbey), Jing Lusi (Red Eye), Richard Rankin (Outlander), Rhiannon Clements (Vera), Patrick Baladi (Line of Duty), Alex Macqueen (The Feud), and Emer Kenny (Karen Pirie).
Supporting cast includes Akshay Khanna (The Doll Factory), Abigail Lawrie (Good Omens), Pierro Niel-Mee (Slow Horses), Rick Warden (Happy Valley), Joe Wilkinson (Sex Education), Robyn Cara (Bodkin), Shaun Prendergast (Industry), Harry Baxendale (The Radleys), Sid Sagar (Big Mood), Sam Alexander (Sister Boniface Mysteries) and Gary Lamont (Boiling Point).
Moffat penned all episodes, with Douglas Is Canceled director Ben Palmer helming all installments and Lawrence Till producing. Moffat also executive produces with his wife, Sue Vertue, for Hartswood Films.
Channel 4 has not yet confirmed a premiere date for Number 10, and the series does not yet have an American distributor, but if this doesn’t end up on either PBS or BritBox, I will eat my hat.
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