The Best Fictional Prime Ministers on TV

The Lead

As the UK gets ready to have its seventh prime minister in 10 years, the question arises: how long before a revolving door is installed at 10 Downing Street? With this in mind, we take a look at TV's best fictional British PMs.

The Countdown of Fictional Prime Ministers

From villainous schemers to beleaguered leaders, here's our countdown of the all-time top 20 fictional British PMs.

20. Stephen Fry as Alastair Davies – 24: Live Another Day (2014)

Dammit, Chloe, I’m driving on the wrong side of the road! Jack Bauer came to London for this comeback series of the real-time preposto-thriller. The US president was in the UK to negotiate a treaty with PM Davies (Stephen Fry) – half David Cameron, half Boris Johnson, all horror – when assassins, hackers and armed drones all made nuisances of themselves. Only Kiefer Sutherland’s butt-kicking Bauer could save the day.

19. Hugh Laurie as Peter Laurence – Roadkill (2020)

Anything Fry could do, his old comedy comrade Hugh Laurie could do more snakily. In David Hare’s conspiracy drama, corrupt Conservative populist Laurence was beset by scandal. He not only had affairs and illegitimate children but was culpable in the deaths of several tenants in properties he owned.

18. Robert Carlyle as Robert Sutherland – Cobra (2020-23)

Robert Carlyle portrayed the beleaguered Tory PM in three series of Sky’s creaky political thriller. He was constantly packed off to the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms for emergency meetings about power grid failures, cyber attacks or eco protesters.

17. Rory Kinnear as Nicol Trowbridge – The Diplomat (2023-present)

Rory Kinnear has played two different TV PMs. A certain one ranks higher. In Netflix’s political thriller, tantrum-prone Trowbridge is a punchable leader who is suspected of orchestrating a terrorist attack on a British aircraft carrier and stirring up war with Russia to boost his public support.

16. Suranne Jones as Abigail Dalton – Hostage (2025)

This twist-packed Netflix potboiler starred Suranne Jones as a plucky PM whose aid worker husband was kidnapped during a state visit by the French president. As Dalton steadfastly refused to give in to blackmail and raced to unmask the terrorists, what followed was a tangled web of military spending cuts, NHS drug shortages, and illegal migrant crossings.

The Rest of the Top 20

The article continues with the rest of the top 20 fictional prime ministers, featuring characters from various TV shows.