Hello and welcome to the political orphanage.

This is BBC One's theatre critic Clive Cripson, filling in for regular host Andrew Heaton,

in a special review episode of the hit new showstopper,

Shut Down the Musical.

I have always been a fan of American political musicals.

Like many of my generation,

I fell in love with the genre when I first encountered Stephen Sondheim's and during masterpiece, Chapa Quiddick.

Oh, the moon was smug, it was grinning wide, as the senator roared through the countryside

A suit so sharp, a tie so neat,

But destiny waits where the lake and road meet

The tires scream no, but the lake said yes,

A tuxedo dive in a watery mess.

Splash, whoopsie, there goes the car.

The headlights blink like a falling star.

Splash, whoopsie, secret sink.

In the ripples wear the guilty thing.

He swerved for a shadow or maybe a deer. Or was it ambition that steered him here?

The water was cold, the truth was hot, the airbag inflated, but morals did not.

The bubbles rose, the story spun.

A senator's swim has just begun.

Splash, whoopsie, there goes the car, the lakes a mirror it shows who you are.

Splash, whoopsie, watch it drown.

...