Chilling Partygate secrets revealed in TV drama - with booze, drugs and sex
The actress at the heart of the Partygate docu-drama said she hopes the “chilling” behaviour on show fills viewers with fury.
Georgie Henley, who plays fictional No10 special adviser Grace Greenwood, wants them to unleash their outrage at the next election. She says: “I think people are going to be angry and I hope they are, to be honest. I know we have a general election very soon and I hope people remember what happened.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re being gaslit by the Government. They say it’s not a problem – and that’s what we have to remember
when we’re in the polling booth.” The 15 lockdown parties at No10 will be brought to life in the dramatisation of the Partygate report by top civil servant Sue Gray.
The scandal of former PM Boris Johnson and his aides breaking Covid rules was revealed by the Mirror in 2021. Georgie says: “Grace thinks of Boris as this unattainable rock star. But you see her disillusionment coming through and the scales falling away.” In the Channel 4 film, parties are juxtaposed with news clips telling people to stay at home and save lives.
Georgie Henley (left) as aide at party (Jack Barnes / Channel 4)Amid boozing and drug-taking, the revelry includes a couple getting intimate. While Grace is young and naive, she represents whistleblowers who finally exposed Partygate. Georgie, 28, says: “She’s not a hero, because she does attend the parties. But once that switch has flicked it’s a time-bomb for her.”
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But she does not think that many of the aides represented in the C4 drama, to be shown on Tuesday, will feel shame when they watch it. Georgie says: “If you were the type to be doing that in the first place, you’re maybe not the type who is going to feel humility for it.
“Part of being in that bubble of privilege is telling yourself a certain story – and you’re not going to be the villain. They’re good at believing it. It really is terrifying, I have to say.” Georgie researched the role by reading about people who voted for Tories in 2019. She said: “It was fascinating to hear people passionately praising Boris. It was an idealised version that felt very far from who he was.”
Jon Culshaw as PM at his birthday celebrations (Rob Parfitt / Channel 4)Impressionist Jon Culshaw, whose plays Johnson, thinks the show serves as a warning about “grotesquely entitled behaviour”. He said: “When you take what happened and show it for what it was, juxtaposed with stories from family members who’d lost people and had to say goodbye over FaceTime, it really drives it home. It’s very visceral.”
‘10 min bashes’ lasted for hours
The film begins with a woman ringing LBC radio, to insist that none of the parties lasted more than 10 minutes and that they were mostly just having a cup of tea. Creator Joseph Bullman says viewers will be shocked by the truth – that the bashes involved excessive alcohol, drug-taking, dancing, arguments and singing lasting up to nine hours at a time.
He says those who have tried to minimise or dismiss what went on will be proved wrong. “People around Boris Johnson have been pushing the idea that he was ambushed by cake. On April 16, 2021, on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, that party ended at 4.20am. And you can go through all the parties and at that one someone spilled red wine, or someone was sick, or there was a brawl. At one, the former head of ethics got a karaoke machine.”
Stars reconstruct one of the lockdown-breaking gatherings (Rob Parfitt / Channel 4)He points out that nowhere else in the country broke the rules as much as they did in No10. “They had 126 fixed penalty notices in the end. So far as we’re able to tell, there was no illegal rave, no council estate, no block party that got anywhere close to that number of fines.”
The film includes clips of people who lost loved ones but continued to obey the rules. Bullman says: “Overwhelmingly, people followed the rules – at great personal cost. But in government, something different was going on.” He says his aim in making the film about the parties – first exposed by the Mirror’s journalism – is to reveal the truth of what happened. “It’s an amazing success story for British journalism, in a time of disinformation.”
* Partygate is on Channel 4, on Tuesday, at 9.30pm (and on 4oD).
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