Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough: Will Tracy has recruited a veritable menagerie of talent for his political satire The Regime. A recipe, surely, for success? Over six episodes, Winslet’s mercurial chancellor Elena Vernham guides her small, central European nation down the path of financial ruin and civil unrest. Portraying Vernham as little more than a petulant child, Winslet is accompanied by Guillaume Gallienne (her mewling husband), Schoenaerts (an unhinged soldier), and Riseborough (the stalwart palace manager). Everyone is on top form, especially Riseborough whose turn as a mother torn between national loyalty and protecting her son provides the show’s only true emotional grounding.

Unfortunately, there is but one word for The Regime: bizarre. One moment Vernham is performing a tuneless rendition of Chicago’s ‘If You Leave Me Now’ to her supporters, the next she’s sanctioning the annexation of neighbouring territory. Each episode lurches wildly between unsuccessful attempts at absurdism and moments of dystopian horror, unable to unite them under the banner of black humour. Winslet’s Trump-Putin hybrid with a penchant for chatting to her father’s preserved corpse is in a farcical dark comedy; Schoenaerts and Riseborough, meanwhile, are trapped in a tense, psychological thriller.
It’s a real pity, as Vernham’s isolationist policies, her land theft, and an insistence that dire polling statistics are ‘fake CIA numbers’ should provide the foundation for a pertinent satire. Yet these moments of clarity are lost beneath severe tonal inconsistencies and increasingly ludicrous plot developments. The Regime imagines itself the lovechild of Armando Iannucci’s Veep and The Death Of Stalin, but Tracy’s effort fails to replicate the insight and seamless wit of the award-winning Scot. Despite its fantastic cast and opulent set, this Frankenstein’s monster of a show is a disappointing dud.
The Regime is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV from Monday 8 April.