If you were a fan of the Mitchell and Webb Apple ad campaign, then you’re in luck because Ambassadors casts them in pretty much the same roles: Webb, the sussed operator; Mitchell, the shushed ploperator. As that sociopath cuntbiscuit atrocitrix Steve Blobs cackled over his Chinese suicide pits he obviously saw something in the dynamic between the two that lent itself to such a relationship. Here we have Mitchell as Keith Davis, hopelessly naive new ambassador to fictional Asian Republic Tazbekistan and Webb as Neil Tilly, deputy head of his mission, a consummate pro, permanently switched-on like a bedside light during a night-time visit to the children’s ward from Rimmy Savile. Blobs clearly had as keen an eye for how people work together as the one he had for discovering new ways to kill Chinamen and develop unworkable proprietary shitware.
Blobs clearly had as keen an eye for how people work together as the one he had for discovering new ways to kill Chinamen and develop unworkable proprietary shitware.
We join Keith just as he lobbies on behalf of the British death industry for a military contract worth $2 billion. This involves sucking up to the President (Yigal Naor), downing shots in seemingly endless toasts and blaming his accidental slaughter of an ibex (the national animal of the Tazbeks) on the French delegation. He is hindered no end by human rights activist Simon Broughton (Henry Lloyd Hughes), getting himself arrested for protesting the regime’s habit of disappearing its citizens. It’s Neil calling the shots though, effortlessly orchestrating as Keith runs around to implement his master plan to make benefit glorious nation of Tazbekistan.
It’s very smart on the complexity, lunacy and attendant hypocrisies of international relations. Even Squealey Nause as the ambassador’s wife doesn’t ruin it.
It works well. The conflict between commercial interests and human rights is cleverly and funnily sketched and it’s very smart on the complexity, lunacy and attendant hypocrisies of international relations. Even Squealey Nause as the ambassador’s wife doesn’t ruin it. It certainly KO1 cowriter James Wood‘s previous work Rev. Picture it as a more sedate The Thick of It. There’s some mileage in this one. Ambassador, with your tonally uncertain comedy-drama you are spoiling us!¹
The verdict: Steve Blobs was a feral rat bastard and China will wreak her terrible vengeance on the world in the coming decades.
Marks out of 10: 7.5
¹ Fuck off.