British actor Benedict Cumberbatch stars in Brexit: The Uncivil War, which is set to air on the U.K.’s public television Channel 4 on January 7. The timing of the broadcast is almost certainly calculated for political impact, since it will play shortly before Parliament is scheduled to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit “deal” with the EU, an agreement which is being hotly contested from virtually every direction. The movie will debut for the American audience on January 19 on HBO. Meanwhile, Andy Serkis, most famous for his portrayal of Gollum/Smeagol in the blockbuster Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, has let loose with his own short video mocking the Brexit push for British independence.
Brexit: The Uncivil War, a joint effort of BBC Studios, HBO, House Productions, and Channel 4, claims to be an “impartial and fair” dramatization of the behind-the-scenes political scheming and maneuverings of Leave and Remain forces in the lead-up to the historic Brexit referendum vote in June of 2016. However, both the BBC and Channel 4 were major anti-Brexit voices in the Project Fear chorus before the 2016 vote and have continued their pro-EU/Remain bias in the ongoing Project Fear II campaign, as we note below.
Then there’s Cumberbatch himself, who has been an outspoken, public Remain supporter/Brexit opponent. He claims the movie attempts to present a very nuanced and fair look at the people behind both campaigns. We have not seen the entire film so we can’t comment definitively one way or the other on that point. However, based on the trailer, Cumberbatch’s avowed anti-Brexit stance, and the documented history of the BBC and Channel 4 in the cranked up Project Fear II campaign, it would be truly naïve to accept their “impartial and fair” claims as anything other than bilge.
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In the movie, Cumberbatch, who achieved household name recognition as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC’s Sherlock and stardom in the title role of Marvel Comic’s Doctor Strange, plays Leave campaigner Dominic Cummings, who is often credited with masterminding the political strategy that catapulted the Brexit campaign to victory.
The recently released trailer for Brexit: The Uncivil War begins with a close-up of a seated Cumberbatch facing the camera. “Everyone knows who won,” he says. “But not everyone knows how.” The new movie purports to show the how. And, the trailer proclaims, it is “BASED ON THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY.” Judging from the trailer, together with the blatant pro-EU/Remain bias of the BBC and Channel 4, the made-for-TV movie is bound to be anti-Brexit agitprop.
Scenes from the movie trailer show Cummings (Cumberbatch) and his Brexit cronies hatching a winning strategy by wedding a message of anger, angst, racism, and xenophobia with sophisticated social-media analytics, data mining, and deceptive advertising.
Responding to criticism, Channel 4 insists that the movie is “accurate, duly impartial and fair.” “Brexit: The Uncivil War is a drama based on extensive and in-depth factual research from a myriad of sources and is an accurate, duly impartial and fair examination of the events of the time and of the people involved,” the Channel 4 press handler stated.
“The biggest political moment of recent British history, Brexit is legitimate territory for a Channel 4 drama to explore and, as our remit calls for, we expect this film to stimulate debate and discussion.”
Brexiteers are unlikely to be convinced by the Channel 4/BBC self-promotions and claims of bias-free production. This past November, Channel 4 commissioned a Survation national poll that purported to show 54 percent of 20,000 British voters surveyed now say they would vote to stay in the EU. However, a careful examination of the deceptive survey shows, as Laurence Hodge found, that “Channel 4’s Brexit poll is 100 per cent bunkum.”
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), of course, has likewise been exposed again and again for attempting to pass off leftist, globalist agitprop as news. One of the more damning outings of the public TV network is a detailed study issued a year ago by the Civitas Institute for the Study of Civil Society, a British think tank, that scorches the BBC for a horrendously “overwhelming” bias against Brexit and British independence from the EU going back many years. In fact, the Civitas study suggests that maybe the BBC should stand for Brussels Broadcasting Corporation, since it is infamous for regurgitating EU propaganda. The study is entitled “The Brussels Broadcasting Corporation? How pro-Brexit views have been marginalised
in the BBC’s news coverage.”
Key findings of the Civitas report include:
• Of 4,275 survey-period guests talking about the EU on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme between 2005 and 2015, only 132 (3.2 per cent) were supporters of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU.
• In 274 hours of monitored BBC EU coverage between 2002 and 2017, only 14 speakers (0.2 per cent of the total) were left-wing advocates for leaving the EU, and they spoke only 1,680 words.
• In Today’s business news covering the six months after the EU referendum, only 10 (2.9 per cent) of 366 speaker contributions were from supporters of withdrawal from the EU.
Prior to the in-depth analysis by Civitas, numerous documented examples of BBC bias had already confirmed to millions of listeners and viewers the anti-Brexit partiality of the broadcaster, which has a remit to serve the public impartially. British journalists Joe Kasper and Miles Goslett, for instance, provide abundant evidence of BBC’s over-the-top anti-Brexit bias, from the vastly inordinate ratio of guest experts and time allotted to the pro-EU side, to the extravagance of BBC’s awarding of coveted tickets — almost exclusively to Remainers — for private box entertainment (along with free drinks and rubbing elbows with celebrities) at the Royal Albert Hall.
Andy Serkis’ Gollum: “My Precious, My Brexit”
British Actor Andy Serkis makes no claims to impartiality in his independently produced short video drama about Brexit. Released just before Christmas, as Theresa May was appearing before Parliament to sell her misbegotten Brexit deal, the video mocks May in an unflattering (to say the least) impersonation that only someone with the formidable talents of Serkis could pull off. Most famous for his portrayal of the pathetic and conflicted Gollum/Smeagol character in the blockbuster Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, Serkis reprises his schizophrenic Gollum role, but in the person of Theresa May.
Bedecked in a wig, pearls, and a blue business suit, Serkis plays May at No. 10 Downing Street, who has just been handed a final draft of the U.K.-EU withdrawal agreement. “Ohhh Precious! Our agreement,” the nasty Gollum/May exults. “Yes! Yes,” he/she hisses. “This is it! We takes back control! Money! Borders! Laws! Blue passportses!” Gollum laughs maniacally before Smeagol, the kinder, gentler side of his split personality interjects the supposed voice of reason and morality. Naturally, this virtuous Smeagol voice echoes the Remain refrain. “It hurts the peoples! It makes them poorer,” the meek Smeagol argues. Gollum/May erupts in fury: “Curse them! We hates them!” But the people “are our friends,” Smeagol insists and the people want another vote. “You don’t have any friends,” Gollum/May snarls. The video ends with Gollum/May lovingly stroking the agreement like the Tolkien character caressed “my Precious,” the Ring of Power. “My Brexit,” Gollum/May coos while affectionately rubbing her Brexit deal, which is Brexit in name only.
The Serkis video was made in concert with We Wants It, one of the pro-EU organizations attempting to gin up support for a re-vote on Brexit. May has repeatedly expressed opposition to another referendum, but many Brexiteers suspect that her public stance is far from firm. They expect that she will flip-flop on the matter, when her “precious” deal fails to pass Parliament. In fact, it appears that her entire negotiation show with the EU was aimed at producing an agreement that was so toxic and objectionable from the British standpoint that it would be rejected. That would set up things for yet another postponement of withdrawal or another referendum, either of which would further delay a true Brexit and allow for more confusing faux Brexit options.
Image: screenshot from YouTube video of Brexit: The Uncivil War trailer
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