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Less than a week into his new political career, Philip Quast came to a conclusion. "It's ridiculous!" he announced. "It's schoolyard stuff, it's so much like acting it's not funny!" His outburst was the result of a question on what Quast had learnt about politics since he took on the role of Liberal backbencher Michael Feilding for the new ABC series Corridors Of Power.
Set in the run-up to an Australian election, Quast and his co-star Jeremy Sims (who plays his Labor opposite) are the kind of pollies many have long suspected were the norm. Both are frantic to keep their jobs, neither gives much of a hoot about their constituents and each thinks he is much more important than anyone else. Sadly, nobody else seems to agree. Feilding is "not quite a buffoon," according to Quast, "but he's close". A second-generation Liberal politician who rode into office on the strength of confusion between himself and his father, he's suddenly found himself desperately in need of some dirty tricks to stay alive. "The first time he tells a lie, it pains him and his wife tells him he can't lie, he's just no good at it," Quast said. "Then his assistant pipes up 'But he's getting better'."
Sims's character Tony Dunne, on the other hand, is a former union man who has risen through the political ranks by employing dirty tricks with regularity. Together, the pair offers up a warped view of life in politics designed specifically to poke fun at our real-life pollies in the run-up to our real-life election. It's a job Sims is finding particularly enjoyable. "I've always leaned a little to the left politically," he said, "so it's nice to play a character who displays the worst of that side of politics. "Dunne is far more concerned with his position and the petty behind-the-doors goings-on than actually achieving something for the general good. "He has no personal stances on any issues at all."
Sims and Quast agreed the immediacy of Corridors, the fact scripts are regularly being written from the day's newspapers (the final script will be written as the first episode goes to air), gives a particularly black comic edge to the utter self-centredness of their characters. "The whole terrorism crisis could be going on in the background and they're so narrow-minded and concerned with saving their own bacon they'd just ignore it" Sims said.
