This House (#3) episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 19, 2026 · 49 MIN

This House (#3)

from Political Fictions: political drama on screen and on the page · host Cory Hazlehurst / Mark Pack

Mark and Cory talk about James Graham's play This House. The hit play, available to stream from the National Theatre, is about party whips trying to prop up a government without a secure House of Commons majority in the 1970s. Mark and Cory marvel at the kipper ties and rotary dial phones, discuss the importance of treating your political opponents with respect, and ponder whether works of art would be improved if they spent more time celebrating the achievements of Labour governments.   Regular listeners will know we have a 'Phil Woolas award' segment in the show. Our sincere condolences therefore to his friends and family on the news that broke just before publishing this episode of his death from cancer at 66.   You can view the IMDb page for This House here.   Next time we're reviewing the first series of The Thick Of It, which UK listeners can currently watch on BBC iPlayer.   As well as appearing in your favourite podcast app, you can find all our episodes online at the show's website, www.politicalfictionspodcast.com. You can find Cory writing about politics at Paperback Rioter or playing chess, while Mark can be found at The Week in Polls and his Parliamentary activity on the Parliament website. Our theme tune is "Monkeys Spinning Monkeys" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) and licensed under the Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).  

Mark and Cory talk about James Graham's play This House. The hit play, available to stream from the National Theatre, is about party whips trying to prop up a government without a secure House of Commons majority in the 1970s. Mark and Cory marvel at the kipper ties and rotary dial phones, discuss the importance of treating your political opponents with respect, and ponder whether works of art would be improved if they spent more time celebrating the achievements of Labour governments.   Regular listeners will know we have a 'Phil Woolas award' segment in the show. Our sincere condolences therefore to his friends and family on the news that broke just before publishing this episode of his death from cancer at 66.   You can view the IMDb page for This House here.   Next time we're reviewing the first series of The Thick Of It, which UK listeners can currently watch on BBC iPlayer.   As well as appearing in your favourite podcast app, you can find all our episodes online at the show's website, www.politicalfictionspodcast.com. You can find Cory writing about politics at Paperback Rioter or playing chess, while Mark can be found at The Week in Polls and his Parliamentary activity on the Parliament website. Our theme tune is "Monkeys Spinning Monkeys" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) and licensed under the Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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This House (#3)

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This episode is 49 minutes long.

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This episode was published on March 19, 2026.

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Mark and Cory talk about James Graham's play This House. The hit play, available to stream from the National Theatre, is about party whips trying to prop up a government without a secure House of Commons majority in the 1970s. Mark and Cory marvel...

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