- 104 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Chris Mullin's witty and irreverent take on contemporary politics adapted for the stage, reflecting three worlds during a time of crisis and change ā the febrile political village of Westminster, the flash points of Africa which he toured as a minister, and the fragile community he served as an MP.
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Yes, you can access A Walk On Part by Michael Chaplin, Chris Mullin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & British Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Part One
A spot picks out CHRIS as he speaks.
CHRIS: As you will know, Mr Speaker, it is the custom when we come to this place for a new Member to make a maiden speech. With your indulgence I wonder if I might initiate a new genre: the valedictory speech. I've been in this place 23 years. I hope during that time I've left the occasional footprint in the sand, but I'm under no illusion. Only a handful of those who currently strut these corridors will still be remembered 20 years from now and I don't expect to be among them. Before the waters close over my head I would like to take this opportunity to place on record a few random thoughts that might be of interestā¦
The other actors appear on stage. On the screens above: May 1 1997.
PARTY WORKER: Vote Labour!
PARTY WORKER: Vote Mullin!
CHRIS: Polling day. Touring in an open-top bus bedecked with balloons and loudspeaker to blast away the apathy.
PARTY WORKER: Vote Labour and we'll bring you more sunshine!
CHRIS: I did my best to insert humour into the sloganising. As we passed some old boys in their allotmentsā¦
PARTY WORKER: Vote Labour to make your leeks grow!
PARTY WORKER: Vote Labour and keep Sunderland in the Premier League!
CHRIS: The team was relegated 10 days later. Our first broken election promise.
The PARTY WORKERS boo, then sit.
CHRIS: The exit polls on the 10 o'clock news predict a landslide. I don't believe them until I reach the count and glance at the table where the votes are laid out in bundles. Their candidate is on 7,000 against my 27. The Tory vote has collapsed. Something astonishing is about to happen.
The PARTY WORKERS applaud and cheer.
RETURNING OFFICER: I do hereby declare that Christopher John Mullin is duly elected as the Member of Parliament for the Sunderland South constituency.
CHRIS: I would like to thank the returning officer and his staff for their phenomenal speed and efficiency, my party workers for their hard work and my wife Ngoc for her support. From now on Britain will be governed on behalf of all its people, not merely the fortunate.
More cheers and applause.
CHRIS: By the time we went to bed five Cabinet ministers had gone. My thoughts on this, the greatest ever Labour triumph, are that victory is not when our side get the red dispatch boxes and the official cars, but when something changes for the better; and that Blair isn't a moderate, but a radical. He has it in him to be a great Prime Minister.
Date: 2 May 1997; image of BLAIR entering Downing Street.
CHRIS: Up at 6 after three hoursā sleep. A neighbour says the country has undergone a form ofā¦
FEMALE NEIGHBOUR: Colonic irrigation!
CHRIS: By lunchtime The Man was entering Downing Street. Most of the crowd are waving Union Jacks. There is no detail too trivial or tasteless for our new masters. No matter, this is a wonderful day to be alive. The major appointments are made and the PM is moving onto the junior posts. Although I'm affecting a lack of interest, the truth is I'm ever so slightly on edge. Why I should sacrifice independence and self-respect for a few baubles, I cannot think. I suppose I just want to be asked.
Date: 12 May 1997. NICK BROWN steps forward, on the mobile
NICK BROWN: Hallo, Chris. We have a job for you.
CHRIS: Oh, really? The chief whip, Nick Brown. What can he mean?
NICK BROWN: We were wondering if you'd second the Queen's Speech.
CHRIS: Ah. Thank you. I'm delighted.
NICK goes, CHRIS sits.
Though apprehensive. Sitting next to me, Tony Benn offers reassurance.
TONY BENN: Don't be nervous, Chris. This is only the second most important moment in the history of the Labour movement.
SPEAKER: The member for Sunderland South!
CHRIS: Madam Speaker, it may be of comfort to colleagues today to know that I had the word āsocialistā written on my election address and it didn't do me any harm.
Laughter from MPs.
My route to respectability has been an odd one. When I was first elected in 1987, Mr Murdoch's Sun published photographs across a full page of what it called āKinnock's Top 10 Loony Tunesā: I was No. 8. I keep my other Sun headlines framed on my study wall at home. There isā¦
THE SUN: Mr Odious. The most repellent man in Britain!
CHRIS: The highest honour The Sun can confer. Then there wasā¦
THE SUN: Loony MP backs bomb gang.
CHRIS: Not forgettingā¦
THE SUN: Twenty things you didn't know about crackpot Chris.
CHRIS: As it turned out, I didn't know most of them either.
THE DAILY MAIL: Poor Sunderland!
CHRIS: Once said the Daily Mail. Sunderland needs no such sympathy. Sunderland has been through hard times in the past but Sunderland looks to the future, and plenty in today's Gracious Speech will be welcomed by its people.
Cheers. Mood changes, bird song. A man approaches. Date: 25 May 1997.
SIR HUMPHREY WAKEFIELD: Look here, what's a socialist doing in a place like this?
CHRIS: Family holiday at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland. After a stroll in the woods along a grassy path fringed with bluebells I am buttonholed by the owner, Sir Humphrey Wakefield.
He turns.
Isn't my money as good as anyone else's?
SIR HUMPHREY WAKEFIELD: Oh dear. These apartments really are awfully underpriced.
SIR HUMPHREY melts away.
CHRIS: Across the lane there is a walled garden which appears to have gone to sleep. After dinner, I sneak inside and explore. It's overgrown with brambles and tall grass, but has been wonderful in its day. Glasshouses, with many of the panes smashed, run along the south wall. A mass of self-seeded lupins poke up among the wet grass. In the orchard, the fruit trees are covered in mildew. Why spend hours in airports, jetting off to crowded resorts, when this perfect place is just an hour and a half away ā and what a labour of love it would be to restore it.
Onscreen: 15 July 1997. JOHN MAJOR pumps CHRISā hand warmly.
JOHN...
Table of contents
- Front Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Editor
- Part One
- Part Two