Fans choose West Wing star as favourite premier

The West Wing’s US President Josiah Bartlett has been voted the fictional head of state people would most like to see take over from David Cameron to run Britain.

Bartlett, played in the long-running series by Martin Sheen, picked up almost a fifth (18 per cent) of votes in the poll carried out to celebrate the arrival of the Lady Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, in cinemas today.

Fictional White House residents took the top five places with Tom Beck, played by Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, and Harrison Ford’s James Marshall from Air Force One in second and third place respectively with 16 per cent and 12 per cent of the votes.

A less obvious choice was President Merkin Muffley, played by Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War black comedy Dr Strangelove, who earned 7 per cent of the vote in a poll of 1,515 people.

Helen Cowley, editor of film rental firm Lovefilm, which carried out the poll, said: “The release of a movie about one of the most famous British prime ministers of all time prompted us to ask members which fictional leader they would like to see at 10 Downing Street.

“For Martin Sheen’s long-serving President Bartlett to come out on top is proof that all that walking and talking is key to popular appeal.”

The Iron Lady, which contrasts Lady Thatcher’s pomp in the 1980s with the frail former politician of the present day, was premiered in London last night.