Channel 4 Steps Inside Downing Street with Steven Moffat’s New Drama Number 10

Image: Ch4 Press

By Jon Donnis

Channel 4 is taking viewers deep inside one of the most recognisable homes in the world with Number 10, a new comedy drama from Hartswood Films, part of ITV Studios. Steven Moffat writes the series, marking his first project for the channel after titles like Sherlock, Dracula and Inside Man.

Rafe Spall leads the cast as the Prime Minister. Jenna Coleman appears as the Deputy Chief of Staff, with Katherine Kelly as Chief of Staff. It is a trio set up to carry both the political chaos and the human tangle beneath it.

They are joined by a packed ensemble inside Downing Street. Akshay Khanna, Abigail Lawrie, Laura Haddock, Jing Lusi, Pierro Niel Mee, Rick Warden, Joe Wilkinson, Robyn Cara, Richard Rankin, Rhiannon Clements, Patrick Baladi, Shaun Prendergast, Harry Baxendale, Alex Macqueen, Sid Sagar, Sam Alexander and Emer Kenny all step into the mix. It creates a house full of clashing personalities, sharp ambition and plenty of room for disaster.

The story plays out in a building where the Prime Minister can hide in the attic, a basement cafe keeps everyone fuelled, and the narrow corridors act as a maze of crisis, romance and quiet heartbreak. It is a terrace home with both mice and a nuclear deterrent. It is also a place where something as small as a hangover can tip the world off balance.

The government in the show remains deliberately vague. The problems, though, stay very real. Once everything starts to crumble, it hardly matters who holds the keys. The focus is on the house, the people working and worrying inside it, and the daily oddities of the only address where a lift engineer might share the day with a conspiracy minded barista. And yes, the cat is part of the story too.

Number 10 treats Downing Street as Britain in miniature. It gathers the country's history, its decisions, its frustrations and its flickers of hope under one roof. It looks at how things became so tangled, and hints that the way out might still be found in the same cramped halls.