‘Right, who are we gonna get this week?’ Think Drop the Dead Donkey, and you’re halfway there, but the hacks at the Rag, a London tabloid, have even fewer rules to follow than the staff of Globelink News. When the editor (Rupert Graves) is caught screwing the chairman’s wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the two begin a tussle for control of the paper, through their various footsoldiers. Meanwhile, a piece of Photoshop serendipity unwittingly uncovers the real story that everyone’s been looking for, and a bitter twist stops the Rag in its tracks, but only for a moment.
A chaotic, Altmanesque approach to the office sets the scene as we see the world spinning around the editor and try to tease out the important bits from ten actors improvising all at once. Conducting bitter feuds while still trying to get the day's splash out in time is hard work, as is watching it at first, but as the camera settles, the fine supporting cast come to the fore, with witty performances from Ian Hart, Kerry Fox and Lucy Davis, among others. NS
