Comic Strip to reunite in Hunt for Tony Blair

Comic Strip to reunite in Hunt for Tony Blair
Comic Strip to reunite in Hunt for Tony Blair (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Hugely popular 1980s comedians The Comic Strip are reuniting in a one-off 60-minute film The Hunt for Tony Blair for Channel 4. Billed as a '1950s-style fugitive film noir spoof', the show will reunite Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders, Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Robbie Coltrane and add Stephen Mangan, James Buckley and Harry Enfield to the ensemble. Channel 4's creative boss Jay Hunt said: "Comic Strip defined comedy for a generation and it's a real coup to have the team back tackling one of the most controversial subjects of our time in a way that only they can. Tony Blair on the run, Jennifer Saunders as Margaret Thatcher, a stellar cast and hotbed of political intrigue - I can't wait to see the rushes." The show will follow Prime Minister Tony Blair (Stephen Mangan), wanted for murder and on the run. Escaping from Number 10 and leaving behind his adoring wife Cherie (Catherine Shepherd), Tony vows to clear his name no matter what the consequences. But on a foggy London night, Tony has few friends willing to harbour a wanted man and with front pages demanding his capture, the PM has no choice but to disappear, with Inspector Hutton (Robbie Coltrane) and his sidekick (James Buckley) hot on his trail. No word yet on a broadcast date.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.