Partygate start date and cast revealed for new Channel 4 drama

Channel 4 is to explore one of the most talked about political stories of recent times in new drama Partygate.

Partygate comes to the channel on Tuesday, 3 October at 9:30PM on Channel 4.

Amid the unfolding horrors of the pandemic – encompassing three national lockdowns, the necessity for PPE, a staggering toll of 40,000 care home deaths, sombrely distanced funerals – personnel within Downing Street found themselves revelling at a sequence of gatherings, fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol.

Hailing from the creators of the BAFTA-winning dramas Killed by my Debt and The Left Behind this factual portrayal draws from painstaking research and credible sources to illuminate the true, untold narrative of the partygate scandal.

Who’s on the cast?

Impressionist Jon Culshaw will lend his voice as former prime minister Boris Johnson while Georgie Henley will play Grace Greenwood and Ophelia Lovibond will play Annabel D’acre, two fictional special advisors.

The cast will also include Phil Daniels, Rebecca Humphries, Hugh Skinner, Charlotte Richie, Craig Parkinson, Tom Durant-Pritchard, Anthony Calf, Alice Lowe, Kimberly Nixon, Alice Orr-Ewing, Naomi Battrick and Edwin Flay.

A teaser shares: “Karaoke, suitcases of wine, ambushing cake… This is the story of the Covid pandemic told through the portal of what was happening inside 10 Downing Street as staff kicked back at a string of lockdown-breaching parties.

“This factual drama, based on meticulous research and the findings of the Sue Gray report, interweaves real-world footage with dramatised scenes inside Number 10 – including parties. As ordinary Britons were instructed to follow the rules, Partygate shows how those charged with making them behaved behind closed doors at Number 10.”

Partygate airs on Channel 4 on Tuesday, 3 October at 9:30PM.