Five Days in May – review

Five Days in May (Radio 4, Saturday), Matthew Solon's drama based on post-election negotiations between the three main parties, was brilliantly done. It played out tense scenes that were fictional, but was based on interviews with those who took part. What I liked best was that the cast didn't go for impersonations of key political figures as such, but instead more loosely captured their spirit, intonation and diction. John Sessions played both Ed Miliband – hilariously shown only quietly handing out coffee and pastries at Labour talks with the Lib Dems – and Ed Balls, the latter all testy, staccato sentences with strong verbs. "You talk, we'll tell you what's possible," he snapped. "That's how I work." Gerard Kelly – who sadly died between the recording and broadcast of the play – played Gordon Brown as a leader who could not change his ways, learn, listen or schmooze, but who had dignity in his sudden departure. Nick Clegg (Nicholas Boulton) and David Cameron (Samuel West,) sounded more and more alike, and their negotiations were all smooth possibility ("We're here to listen and to work with you") rather than the clunky stalling between Clegg's team and Labour. This was a fascinating behind-the-scenes fiction, and one that enjoyably took you back to that curious, extraordinary political moment of limbo and then coalition.