The Power Game, season 1 (1965)

The Power Game was the follow-up series to ATV’s very successful The Plane Makers (1963-65). The Plane Makers details the earlier career of rising tycoon Sir John Wilder in the British aircraft industry. The Power Game, which ran for three seasons from 1965 to 1969, charts his continued rise to power. The new series features several key characters from The Plane Makers and introduces important new characters.

These two series are among the greatest achievements of 1960 British television.

The Power Game begins after Wilder’s departure from the Scott-Furlong aircraft company. He has now set his sights on a major construction company, Blighs. There is already a power struggle within the company between the founder, Caswell Bligh (Clifford Evans) and his son Kenneth Bligh (Peter Barkworth). Wilder intends to take advantage of this to gain eventual full control.

Wilder doesn’t care about the construction industry. It’s just a means to an end.

He expects Caswell Bligh to be a tough opponent but he discovers that Kenneth Bligh is a quick learner and potentially rather formidable as well.

That just adds spice to the game. This series is indeed about power as a game. It’s a game played by industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats and trade-unionists all of whom treat power as an end in itself. And they enjoy the game for its own sake. They don’t care about the country or the customers or the shareholders. They all play the game very hard and care only about winning. 

The rules are simple. You do whatever you can get away with.

This series may have been made 60 years ago but it is not the least bit dated. The game of power never changes.

The worlds of business, politics and the bureaucracy intersect constantly in this series, as they still do in real life six decades earlier. The media and the security services get involved in these power games as well, as they always do. In this series all politicians, from both parties, combine breathtaking viciousness and cynicism with incompetence and cowardice.

Wilder’s personal life becomes a major focus in The Power Game. He is married to Pamela (Barbara Murray). They stay together because preserving the marriage is in both their interests. Pamela has always tolerated Wilder’s extra-marital flings. Until now.

This latest fling began as a purely cynical move on Wilder’s part. Susan Weldon (Rosemary Leach) is a young but fairly senior civil servant employed by the National Export Board. She has access to extremely useful information, information she is not permitted to reveal but if he can seduce her he will undoubtedly get access to that information. He assumed that she understood that this was just an affair, that there was no way he was going to divorce his wife. 

Wilder also assumed that he would not become emotionally involved. Both assumptions prove to be mistaken.

And now Pamela may be having an affair as well. It’s un unstable unpredictable situation.

In this world such personal dramas become inextricably entangled with the boardroom dramas.

It should be pointed out that Wilder is not a crooked businessman as such. His ethics are breathtakingly flexible and his methods are exceptionally ruthless but he sees actually breaking the law as a loser move that invariably leads to disaster. If you’re smart you stay within the law and that’s what he does although at times he sails very very close to the wind.

It should also be noted that Wilder is not a vulture capitalist. His intention is always to build successful profitable companies. He sees that as the most secure basis for power.

Wilder might be a bit of a rogue but it’s impossible not to feel considerable admiration. He is a doer. He has immense energy and determination and imagination. He is within his chosen sphere almost a genius. 

Sir John Wilder is a big man in world of little men, of grey men.

And he is a fighter. Whenever his enemies (and he has plenty of those) think they have him on the ropes they discover that that is when he is most dangerous.

The series boasts a superb cast. Peter Barkworth gives a nicely nuanced performance as Kenneth Bligh, a man slowly gaining in confidence and learning to enjoy the game of power. 

Jack Watling (who was also in The Plane Makers) is good as Wilder’s right-hand man Don Henderson.

Barbara Murray is excellent as Lady Wilder, a woman in some ways almost as cynical as her husband.

The supporting cast includes such luminaries as Philip Madoc, Alfred Burke and Ian Holm (as an incredibly slimy civil servant).

But this series is dominated by the extraordinary charismatic powerhouse performance of Patrick Wymark as John Wilder. He is an absolute joy to watch.

The Power Game is subtle intelligent television and it’s very highly recommended.

Network’s DVD release of all three seasons can still be found without too much trouble. The image and sound quality are both quite satisfactory.

I’ve also reviewed the early episodes of The Plane Makers as well as the second season and the third season. 

And if you love this type of 1960s British TV you’ll also enjoy Mogul, AKA The Troubleshooters (1965).