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Fat Cats by Snoo Wilson

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BBC Radio 4, 14 January 2012
 
In this drama, part of the From Fact to Fiction series, disillusioned wife Gloria (Tracy Wiles) decided to create a musical Fat Cats featuring her husband Tom (Orlando Seale), a financier with a taste for the high life and a Russian lover Svetlana (also played by Wiles). The musical satirized Tom's rapacious desire to make money for the sake of it, regardless of the consequences. However the main backer for the musical was Tom himself; completely oblivious to its content, he perceived it as another way to make a quick buck, just like his father had done when he invested in My Fair Lady.
 
The musical looked like being derailed by David Cameron's policy to put a cap on the salaries and/or bonuses earned by City high-flyers. Tom no longer had the spare cash to invest in the show; and contemplated the fact that he would now be downgraded from a high- into a middle-income earner. But salvation was at hand: the members of the Conservative shires raised such strong objections to the proposed high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham that Cameron was forced to rethink his strategy. Salaries were maintained at their existing levels, so as to ensure the Conservative Party's future at the next election.
 
With new lyrics set to Gilbert and Sullivan's "When I was a Lad" by Neil Brand, Fat Cats portrayed a hedonistic world dominated by money. Any beliefs in marital fidelity, or a socially responsible government policy were rendered meaningless; what really mattered was that Tom could order foie gras and champagne at one of London's most exclusive eateries, while Svetlana could spend his money on furthering her career as a minor celebrity on a shopping channel. Meanwhile Fat Cats became a West End hit, financed by those people whom it satirized. Wilson's scenario recalled Caryl Churchill's play Serious Money (1987), a satire of 80s yuppie culture which became a cult amongst the yuppies themselves.
 
The three-strong cast - Seale, Wiles, and Stephen Crichlow as Gloria's buddy Sneep - obviously relished their roles in Peter Kavanagh's production. Fat Cats might have only been fifteen minutes long, but it certainly packed a satiric punch.