Absolute Power (2003–2005)

John Bird: Martin McCabe

Quotes 

• Charles Prentiss : Now. So... er... paintings... in the style of John Sell Cotman, Tom Girtin, Turner... The great tradition of English watercolourists and by extension, therefore, your enemy is... painters who prefer to use acrylics? Um... help me out. Um... right. "A.H." They're all signed A.H. Er... That would be Alice? Agatha? Give me a clue.

  Martin McCabe : Adolf Hitler.

  Lord Harcourt : The Commandant's desk from Auschwitz. His chair. This key once unlocked the main gate at Belsen. And over here, and this is particularly recherche, a little canister, unused, marked "Zyklon".

  Martin McCabe : Could you spare us a moment, please?

  Roddy Growse : Oh, yes, of course. It is a bit overwhelming. Take your time.

  Martin McCabe : God forgive me, Charles. We've got to get out of here. This is quite impossible.

  Charles Prentiss : Nothing's impossible, Martin, if we've set our mind to it. We don't falter.

  Martin McCabe : What?

  Charles Prentiss : When Edwina revealed so vividly to us that she was actually a man, did we hesitate in promoting her memoir?

  Martin McCabe : Charles, we need to get you back to London.

  Charles Prentiss : If I want your opinion, Martin, I'll give it to me. No. We took the client. We're not about to ditch the client because things have got a bit eggy.

  Martin McCabe : A bit eggy? Charles, they're fucking Nazis.

  Charles Prentiss : That's the ultimate PR challenge, isn't it? Decades of terrible press, but what did they actually achieve?

  Charles Prentiss : Apart from the slaughter of millions of Jews? I can't believe I'm hearing this! You cannot spin the Final Solution.

  Charles Prentiss : They gave us Gewurztraminer, Riefenstahl, the Autobahn, the Volkswagen, the iconic use of dark leathers and they made the sausages run on time.

  Martin McCabe : You cannot spin the Holocaust.

  Charles Prentiss : Well, 20 years ago you couldn't pay people to have an Alsatian. Devil dogs. Then rebrand them as German Shepherds - German - and suddenly, bingo, they're top of the poochy pops. You don't have to "buy" the video, you can "own" it. See? All in a word.

  Martin McCabe : Poochy pops?

  Charles Prentiss : Above all, Martin, think of the money. The money's going to be bloody outrageous.

  Lord Harcourt : [leaving the basement]  The Hebrew - it's always him. 2,000 years and nothing's changed.

  Charles Prentiss : Yes. I've never really understood this thing about the Jews, why they're such a menace. They look and behave just like us.

  Lord Harcourt : Exactly.

  Martin McCabe : I'm a Jew.

  [all look at him menacingly] 

  Charles Prentiss : [getting in their car]  Never, never, never let us do anything like that, Martin, ever again.