Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Lena Hedley, Domhnall Gleeson, Kim Coates, Toby Huss, Liam James, Tony Plane, Yul Vasque, Zoe Levin, Tre Ryder, Nelson Ascencio, Judy Greer, Ike Barinholtz, Kiernan Shipka, Alexis Valdés, Julie Hays, Peter Mitchell, Kisha Barr, F. Murray Abraham, John Carroll Lynch, David Krumholtz, Kathleen Turner, Gary Cole, Peter Serafinowicz.

You need separate your feelings and your emotions when watching the five-part miniseries, White House Plumbers, for the sense of disbelief will be all consuming as the understanding of just how perilously close the United States of America came to be under a tyranny, and how deliriously the ineptness of certain individuals saved the country from being a danger to itself.

For many of a certain generation, the scandal of Watergate either looms large in their conscious, the inspiration of journalism in others, or for a new generation, a sense of unwavering disbelief, the sense that a President could show their hand in such a way a truth of a system they have rightfully come to distrust.

Whilst there have been films that have touched upon the investigation of the men who broke into the Democratic Party campaign headquarters of George McGovern, to feel the utter confusion, the maladroitness of the repercussions and the sheer damnation that comes from an insurrection against the people spearheaded by a corrupt and paranoid President, White House Plumbers, even as intended sarcasm and satire, truly conveys the mockery to which those in official capacity truly see and treat their people.

It is the truth of satire in which justice and knowledge is restored to those who were at the point of being witnesses to history’s utter contemptable failings; and White House Plumbers scours the depths to show the results of the plans drawn up by E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy as they took the brunt of Nixon’s attempt at a sleight of hand coup against the State he oversaw.

With a cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Lena Hedley and Kathleen Turner in a rare but vital performance on screen, White House Plumbers is the behind the scenes reveal that many will be surprised by, the sense of history at stake as the 1972 election loomed in the distance.

If there is an issue with making certain people look inept then it is perhaps, as history suggests, well deserved, for to cause as much damage as the group who operated in the shadows, who may or may not have been complicit in other damaging aspects of American society, is akin to dealing with the devil, and there have been a few of them in charge around the world.

Ian D. Hall