Tower Block of Commons, Monday 9pm, C4

Posted by Stewart Turner

Tower Block of Commons © Channel 4

Most commentators agree the Labour Party needs nothing short of a miracle to win a fourth term when the country goes to the polls in May – and if they were looking to veteran MP Austin Mitchell to win over a few hearts and minds and score a few political points in last night’s highly watchable Tower Block of Commons, they were sadly mistaken.

The show rehoused four MPs – the Tories got two, for some unexplained reason – in grim, inner-city high-rises for a week to see how they coped with a slice of edgy urban life, rather than rowing a coracle around their moats all day and paying their children £30k a year to make tea and fetch HobNobs.

With Mitchell’s insistence on getting his very own flat – all the other MPs gamely stayed on the sofa with a kind of welfare personal trainer – and decision to pop round a pal’s house for dinner on the Saturday night, the absurd member for Greater Grimsby somehow managed to make even former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith look like he possessed a shred of empathy.

Although at times the action seemed to have been staged – I’d question whether your average teenage tower block dweller would be able to pick out Mark Oaten as the Lib Dem MP at the heart of a tabloid scandal without a bit of goading from the producers, for example – the show was a compelling watch, with Oaten probably coming out of it best, despite his flabbergasting lack of knowledge about filling in lottery tickets.

Other notable highlights included Tory MP Tim Loughton looking baffled because the local newsagent didn’t stock the Daily Telegraph, and IDS getting a grilling over the age he lost his virginity. Most of all, there was a palpable sense that each of the MPs was finally glimpsing the grim realities of a country they’d had a hand in creating. Compulsive viewing.

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