Casting an eye over actors who play politics on eve of "Haughey"

POLITICS is rock ’n’ roll for the ugly, and the shucksters, bounders and bumpkins who hang about in Leinster House are a motley crew.

Glamour does not abound: just look at the Healy-Raes. So why would you watch a TV drama about our inglorious political elite? Aidan Gillen and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor are to play Ireland’s ultimate political partnership, Charlie Haughey and PJ Mara, but how have politicians, at home and abroad, fared when they’ve made the leap from real life to the screen?

Vampires aren’t the only bloodsuckers to have become fodder for Hollywood and TV Land. Recently, politicians have become inspiring programmes. Chief muse is Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady. From cameos in films such as A View To A Kill to Some Mother’s Son, Thatcher had been portrayed by the cream of Britain’s actresses, until Meryl Streep slipped out of her farm in Africa and into the leather heels of Britain’s only female PM. The film, The Iron Lady, won Streep yet another Oscar.