- Simon Wellington: It's very simple. I was looking for a fox.
- Colin Priestley: Right. Jesus. It's our own fault. We train you guys to talk bollocks in the House of Commons and the television studio, but please spare me the dispatch box stare. I'm not Leader of the Opposition. I'm an intelligent man.
- Simon Wellington: A fox. Really. There are foxes on the heath. It's quite a sight. I like to go there after doing my red boxes.
- Colin Priestley: Simon. Simon. As the Prime Minister's Press Secretary, you take more confessions than a priest, so I've heard the best lies in the business and yours is the political equivalent of "the dog ate my homework".
- Simon Wellington: If I were making up a cover story, I'd make up something less ridiculous than this.
- Colin Priestley: You had scratches and torn clothing.
- Simon Wellington: I was mugged. Regrettably, these two men stopped to help me. That's how the story got out. Where's the selfish, uncaring society when you need it?
- Colin Priestley: Simon, do me and yourself a favour. You're gay. It's what we call a "moma".
- Simon Wellington: I'm sorry?
- Colin Priestley: Moment of madness. That one's a bit inky. Have to think of a new one for your press release. Minute of misjudgement. Flash of... Well, maybe not flash, but whatever.
- Simon Wellington: Look, call me a leaker, call me a plotter, call me anti-European, but I'm not gay.
- Colin Priestley: Simon, you probably think that being gay is the wrong answer, which is why you're lying, but it's the right answer. The PM's got most of the country now, but even after a couple of gay Cabinet ministers the pink flag doesn't exactly flap for him.So we're going to appoint a minister for fudge packers and muff divers - as the electorate will learn to stop calling them - except we can't find a gay minister.
- Simon Wellington: Well, what about...
- Colin Priestley: Mandelson won't take it. Said something about stereotyping. But then look what the fox dragged in.
- Simon Wellington: I'm not gay.
- Colin Priestley: Simon, you have 48 hours to decide. "Out and proud" is the press release I'm planning. If you're out, you're in, and if you're in, you're out.
- 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.
- Colin Priestley: [about the Democrabus] He loves it.
- Charles Prentiss: What?
- Colin Priestley: It's quintessentially British, it has tradition, it has flair, it has...
- Charles Prentiss: ...wheels.
- Colin Priestley: Yes. It's also got democracy. It's modern.
- Charles Prentiss: It's a bus.
- Colin Priestley: It's in tune with the people, it's blue-skies thinking. It reminds one of childhood, of day trips, of the seaside. It's radical but rooted.
- Charles Prentiss: He wants it?
- Colin Priestley: He wants the whole package. This'll get rid of the old bastards once and for all, spending the rest of their lives in some travelling, never-ending Radio Five Live phone-in. It'll look like sweeping reform, but the beauty of it is that essentially it's totally meaningless.
- Charles Prentiss: It's certainly that.
- Colin Priestley: It's a pity we can't acknowledge your part in all of this, Charles. It seems so unfair that I get all the credit. Still, who knows? I might be able to swing it with the PM for you to get a seat in the Lords. Which would you prefer, top or bottom deck?