Steven Moffat discusses his new Channel 4 series Number 10, set inside the Prime Minister's residence.
Moffat insists Number 10 is not about politics, but everyday life and comedy at Downing Street.
The show features a fictional government, with focus on quirky staff and real-life workplace chaos.
Inspired by The Press Gang, Moffat returns to ensemble comedy exploring power and humanity at Number 10.
Former Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat is starting to talk about his new series Number 10, which is the address of the British Prime Minister in London. While billed as a political drama, Moffat insists the show isn't really about politics at all. In Moffat's Number 10, the government will be fictional, but the problems will be real. We'll never know which party is in power, because once the whole world hits the fan, it barely matters.
Former "Doctor Who" showrunner Steven Moffat, image: BBC America
Moffat talked to the Radio Times about the new series, which will begin filming in December. He described it as more of a workplace comedy that will follow all of the unique characters found at 10 Downing Street, from the Prime Minister to the conspiracy theorist working in the shop in the basement. We called it – it's Moffat's take on The West Wing, only in less glamourous Downing Street.
"I've always been intrigued about what on earth goes on in that ridiculous little toy-town street that runs Britain," said Moffat. "So Number 10 is not really about politics at all, though everyone's going to think it is. It's just about what it's like being in there, with the two most powerful people in the country in the attic, the worst coffee shop you've ever seen in the basement, and basically a knock-through with mice and a nuclear deterrent. It's just the most remarkable address I can think of."
It's Like Steven Moffat's First Series "The Press Gang" All Over Again
"There's quite a lot of comedy – it's a funny place," he teased. "I wanted to write an ensemble comedy like I did many years ago in Press Gang, and you need a workplace for that. Well, that's the ultimate workplace. If you get a hangover there, you can start a war." Moffat also said you'll never know which party is in power in the series, "I'm not really interested in any of that. I don't think they are either! There's very little politics in real politics – every five years there's an outbreak of politics called the General Election. The rest of the time, they're just trying to run a country! I've read a ton. I've met a lot of people, including quite well-known people – I can never give their names away – and I've heard lots of stories, but it's really just about the ultimate Upstairs Downstairs, where upstairs runs the country and downstairs sells Twixes. And I've been there a few times. I've been thinking about it for years. I've been reading the books, not because I'm a big expert on politics, I really am not. I'm just more interested in what the hell it's like when you become Prime Minister. One thing it does to all of them is ages them 15 years in about a year. So for all that we're cynical about it, and derisory about it, all the cynics and the deriders don't work as hard as the person they're deriding."
"This is a show about the building and everyone inside. Not just the prime minister upstairs, but the conspiracy theorist who runs the cafe three floors below, the man who repairs the lift that never works, the madly ambitious 'advisors' fighting for office space in cupboards. Oh, and of course, the cat," Moffat added. Number 10 will air on Channel 4 next year. It's too soon to know which streamer it'll be on in the US.
Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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