Michael Rimmer is eerily similar to Tony Blair

There are a number of interesting observations in the IMDb reviews of this film to date, but two of the more perceptive ones are: 1) that Michael Rimmer is a kind of continuation of the George Spiggott character from Bedazzled; 2) that he is a kind of prefiguring of Tony Blair.

It's ironic, also, that the producer of the film was David Frost, who was not only an arch-rival of Peter Cook, but also the man who, in the words of Kitty Muggeridge, "rose without trace" in a manner strongly recalled by Michael Rimmer (a comparison that occurred to me before I heard director Kevin Billington make it on the DVD commentary). If Blair is the ultimate avatar of Rimmer, Frost must have been an early one.

That said, it's the resemblance to Blair that will impress itself most forcibly on a modern-day viewer. Nicholas Phipps's character's desiderata for the perfect party leader were amply fulfilled in both Rimmer and Blair, and one might almost be forgiven for thinking that Blair himself, failing to perceive any irony, took Rimmer as his role model.

Rimmer, like Blair, has a kind of vacant charm combined with a complete absence of self doubt and the ability to subordinate everything - including common decency and the truth - to the ruthless acquisition, retention and augmentation of power.