Airing in 2006, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard was an English political drama truncated abruptly by the economic downturn of that era. The story followed the titular Mrs Roz Pritchard, an erstwhile shop manager, who became Prime Minister almost by accident, after being thoroughly disillusioned by politics when a Labour and a Conservative candidate for her local MP get in a fistfight outside her market. "I could do better than you!" she exclaims, and does. Forming the Purple Alliance, she runs for MP herself, as a normal person fed up with obtuse politics and politicians. Naturally, for a main character at the beginning of their series, she is outrageously popular, and even becomes Prime Minister!
However, in the background is her family, who don't take this sudden popularity so well. Her husband Ian has legal issues in his closet, which are disturbed by politicians sussing out Roz, her older daughter Emily is irresponsible and self-absorbed, and only her younger daughter Georgina supports her.
This series provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: A plane has come down in a residential area, causing massive destruction and horrible injuries and deaths! Could it have been terrorists? Or idiotic legislation? Whatever shall we do?! ...nothing at all, apparently. Possibly excused by the cancellation.
- Lady Land: The Purple Alliance seems to be entirely female (at least at the parliamentary level.) Surprisingly little is made of this.
- Landslide Election: Roz's election. It's such a landslide it borders on soft science fiction, as 54% of the vote for a non-established third party is ridiculously outlandish considering that out of all UK elections under universal suffrage, only once did the winner gain more than 50% of the vote, and that was in 1935. If such a result would be placed in an Alternate History work, it would immediately be laughed out of existence as the epitome of Alien Space Bats.
- No Periods, Period: Averted in a plot point. Catherine mentions a late period, prompting her secretary to give her a pregnancy test.
- Political Cartoons: An amusing one of Catherine insulting Roz appears
- Shout-Out: Mrs. Pritchard's town "Eatanswill" is the fictional constituency where Mr. Pickwick goes to observe an election in The Pickwick Papers.
- Timeskip: Twelve months go by between the first and last three episodes.
- Title Drop: When Roz becomes PM.
- Money-Laundering Cover Up: A very serious one keeps Ian's fraud from Roz.
- Visual Pun: Invoked. Purple=red+blue. The Purple Alliance is made up of people from Labour (red) and Conservative (blue).
