The Standard sent a reporter along to write about the first performance of the Lockdown Files Live on Saturday, in which I interviewed Isabel Oakeshott on stage about working with Matt Hancock on the Pandemic Diaries, why he shared over 100,000 WhatsApp messages with her, and why she then decided to turn them over to the Telegraph. To break up the interview, two gifted actors read out some of the more embarrassing exchanges, with Adam Drew playing Hancock and Adrian McGlynn playing Boris, which the audience found very entertaining. We’re doing it again on Tuesday night at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square, for which a handful of tickets are still available. Only £25 for two hours of rock solid entertainment in the West End, which must be the bargain of the century! There’s also a very nice bar. Click here if you’d like to buy a ticket.
Here’s how the Standard piece begins:
It’s past 9pm on Saturday night in Westminster, and Matt Hancock is shouting “we didn’t break the f**king law, OK!” Well, an actor playing Hancock is shouting, as he reads out real messages from the former health secretary when his Covid guidelines-breaking affair with aide Gina Coladangelo was discovered in 2021.
It’s part of a new live show put on by Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist Hancock fell out with when she leaked his pandemic WhatsApps to a newspaper earlier this year.
For most of the show, Oakeshott is interviewed on stage by fellow lockdown sceptic Toby Young at the UnHerd Club near Parliament, in front of around 100 people. She and Young decided to do a live event after he was one of the few people in the media to defend her decision to reveal the messages. Young then suggested getting actors to read out Hancock’s WhatsApps, to add some fun to proceedings. Hancock himself hasn’t been that keen on the idea.
Oakeshott tells Young how she came to write a pandemic book with Hancock, and stands by her actions, saying they were in the public interest. She says she wouldn’t be able to do that now, as most MPs have switched on auto-delete on their WhatsApp conversations. “Maybe that’s just for me”, she jokes.
In between the chat, the actors do their thing, dressed in ill-fitting suits. Highlights include chats with then PM Boris Johnson about exceptions for grouse shooting, and a cringe-inducing monologue where Hancock justifies wearing a wetsuit for a photoshoot in Cornwall. The group will perform again tomorrow, at the Leicester Square Hippodrome, usually the home of strip show Magic Mike. Hopefully, no one books their hen do on the wrong night. If they get the backing, they’d like to do a verbatim play.
Adrian McGlynn, who plays Hancock, is an amateur actor and retired director of a horse-racing company. He was in the same year at Eton with David Cameron, while his partner is former BBC radio star Sarah Kennedy. McGlynn is an anti-lockdown advocate, and says he isn’t doing an impression of Hancock. “I don’t look anything like him,” he says, but does try a few verbal tics (“Lots of ‘ers’ and ‘umms”), and some mannerisms. “He looks around a lot, as if he’s looking for praise or applause… nose up in the air a little bit,” McGlynn says.
“I have nothing but contempt for our former health secretary, so I do it with much glee and no fear,” he says with relish. “I’ve been shaking my head in disbelief at his arrogance and total immunity from self-awareness”. Meanwhile, actor Adam Drew gives an on-the-money impression of Johnson.
Worth reading in full.
If you’d like to buy a ticket for Tuesday night’s second and final performance at the Hippodrome, click here.
Stop Press: The Telegraph has just released a video about the Lockdown Files. You can watch it here.
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Well I don’t think anyone could accuse the UK police of ”racial prejudice against ethnic minorities”. Example 793 showing who gets a free pass to behave like a d*ck because they’re one of ‘the protected ones’ in society. Police are as pathetic as ever here;
https://x.com/HoodedClaw1974/status/1863161462996251047
Can I just ask, why are those Muslim Manchester airport thugs that violently attacked police and broke the nose of one officer still free when this guy, who just so happens to be white, also broke a police officer’s nose but was sent down for 4.5yrs?? Well I think I’ve just answered my own question. Total p*ss-take;
https://x.com/MerseyPolice/status/1861032820899987700
We are ruled by a minority for the minority….
This is hilarious. I would say don’t dignify it by discussing it or even thinking about it but they probably would pass such a law if they could get away with it. And I find the notion of exclusive protection of Abrahamic religions to be even funnier. Can you imagine a decadent crap hole like this one with an overlay of Abrahamic totalitarianism it is just bizarre.
https://www.youtube.com/live/RcxI3F_8pco?si=PMu67jj_MOnV9lrT
Meanwhile plod want Mahyar Tousi to stop by for a chat tomorrow at which time they will decide whether or not to arrest him.
https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FvK1066jWO5Y%3Fsi%3D8aO_oRz-0sxeqViQ%3AzPZUNeMotFpBvUFaO36_So0PJVs&cuid=7594221
The second short video is from Andre Walker. Despite my usual dismissal of him as a bit of a prat this promise of help for Mahyar is genuinely heart-warming.
Well, that hand written notice tells us all where the intolerance lies.
Prophet means intellectual, seer, visionary. Such people will always be attacked until the end of time. Any religion that seeks to prevent attacks upon prophecy is operating in an anti-divine manner. I have even heard saps on Radio 4 calling Mohammed ‘The Prophet’. He isn’t the prophet. He delivered a syncretic teaching based on a number of sources and even in the tone of their holy book there is a sense of doubt. This is nonsense. The whole point of the Christian teaching is the pervasiveness of light. There are many prophets and you can’t ask for them to be protected by law. They wouldn’t want that themselves they want the opposite.
There is no offence. If someone insults the divine in your presence then it is usually passion in the mode of ignorance or some emotional hang up. The fact that a human being says something against your belief system, that you find this hard to bear is simply a testament to your lack of faith. This is all nonsense. Theocracy has devious means of asserting itself and it never has much to to with God except as a means to an end which is as about as sinful as you can get.
“No matter who gets upset”——In an ideal world where everyone is equal that should certainly be the case. But it is quite clear that fear of offending Muslims is at a much higher level than fear of offending other religions. But the problem is that Islam is not just a religion. It is a Political and legal system s well. It will be the end of the free world if people cannot criticise, offend or disrespect Politics or Law. —–But religions should feel comfortable enough in their own skin to just ignore distasteful remarks about their religion.
Part of a free society is the freedom to exchange views on everything without breaking the law. I’m happy to discuss my religious views with someone whose religious views – either in favour of a different religion, or in favour of none – contrast with mine. I may not agree with the other person, and they may not agree with me, but that’s called open discussion or debate, and it’s fundamental to the British way of life. If God is offended by anything that’s said, then God is big enough to deal with it.
We must remain free to discuss contrasting views on religion, just as we must be free to discuss contrasting views on science (take Covid and the climate emergency, for example), politics etc. It’s healthy and actually helps increase understanding of people with different faiths and opinions. The alternative is that we all retreat into the bubble of our own world view and cease interacting with others in society.