Stonehouse

John Stonehouse thinks he can escape a collapsing life by making everyone believe it has ended. Stonehouse dramatises the politician's extraordinary attempt to disappear, with Matthew Macfadyen playing a man whose confidence in his plan is considerably greater than its reliability.

Keeley Hawes gives the family side of the story a necessary counterweight. The scheme may be absurd, but other people have to deal with its consequences, and their reactions keep the comedy from treating it as a harmless adventure.

The short format suits the material. An implausible decision can lead to another without requiring the series to invent enough machinery for a long conspiracy thriller. Macfadyen is particularly effective when Stonehouse tries to preserve his dignity while the explanation becomes harder to maintain.

This is a dramatisation rather than a documentary account of every incident. Quiz, also featuring Macfadyen, is a useful companion about a notorious British episode whose details seem almost designed for television. Here, the increasingly impractical escape is the central fascination.