This wickedly funny and not remotely affectionate parody of the scribblings of Jeffrey [now Lord] Archer, politician and pulp novelist, was the work of Nick Newman and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop.  Littered with stock characters, implausible plot twists, product placements and bucketfuls of terrible dialogue, it related the story of the bitter rivalry between the aristocratic Foxwell Cravate (Martin Jarvis) and his former friend, nouveau-riche American tycoon Max Pomeroy (Mac Macdonald), played out against the backdrop of an impending crisis in the oil-rich state of Araby, which has the potential to destroy Western society as we know it…  Caroline Quentin and Felicity Montagu played the two women in both the men’s lives, and the series also featured Jonathan Coy and Julian Dutton.  It was produced by Colin Swash, who also produces Have I Got News For You, the satirical TV quiz on which Hislop is a panellist.