Episode #2.2

There is a government reshuffle pending, and Minister for Social Affairs, Hugh Abbot, is worried he may find himself out of a job due to his underwhelming performance for the Department.

His paranoia becomes evident when he asks one of his civil service assistants, Robyn Murdoch, to glean as much information about the reshuffle from the daily 8:30am government Departments meeting with Director of Communications, Malcolm Tucker.

This will be Murdoch's first meeting with Tucker, and as a consequence is already nervous being in the same room as the passive/aggressive Tucker. But when Abbot leans on her to find out what will happen in the reshuffle she becomes even more worried, not least for her own job.

The reshuffle also brings about a new character into the fold, Julius Nicholson, who is brought in to oversee the pending policies of all the major Departments.

Nicholson works directly for the PM and in a brief meeting with Tucker threatens him with not only dissolving the Department of Social Affairs, but also removing some of the duties and influence from Tucker.

This news irritates Tucker, not least because he sees it as an intrusion of his own domain by an outsider. Therefore to protect his position he resorts to discrediting Nicholson by any means possible - ethical or otherwise.

So now we see Abbot and Tucker panic about their own job roles, which also includes Abbot's two advisors, Glenn Cullen and Ollie Reeder, who could also lose their jobs.

A great episode, not least to see the beginnings of Tucker's reign of power and influence gradually fall apart with the arrival of Nicholson.

The paranoia and desperation within Abbot's Department and Tucker's office is palpable, and makes for a tense and intense episode.