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It's the first major drama to take on Brexit and Channel 4 is promoting its Benedict Cumberbatch vehicle in the most suitable way.

The broadcaster has unleashed a red campaign bus emblazoned with the slogan "Take back the remote control. Watch the gripping new TV drama."

It's inspiration, of course, is the notorious pro-Brexit bus which toured the country promising an extra £350million a week for the NHS if Britain left Europe.

Ian Katz, director of programmes on Channel 4, tweeted an image of the bus on Friday with the caption: "Hoping this might bring us 350m viewers on Monday night..."

'Brexit: The Uncivil War' is a one-off two-hour drama which airs at 9pm on Monday.

Cumberbatch plays Leave campaigner Dominic Cummings and the film follows him and his Remainer rivals as they fight for votes. The drama is based on first hand accounts of the Referendum campaign.

(Image: Getty Images)

The Brexit bus is widely considered to be one of the low points of the Brexit battle with the £350m figure quickly branded "potentially misleading" in a scathing attack by Britain's data watchdog.

Then post Brexit, Theresa May said the '£350 million a week' the Leave campaign promised would be saved by leaving the EU would not go to NHS.

Followers seemed amused by Ian's picture on Twitter, commenting that it was "brilliant" and "amazing".

One commented: "We’ll give you the remote back, with half the buttons missing, then force you to watch what we want."

Another wrote: "As long as you can say that if I tune in it won’t be completely different to what you promised..."

Theresa May suggested back in March 2017 the extra money going to the health service - a pledge plastered on the side of the Leave campaign’s big red battle bus - wasn’t really what people voted for.

Asked if Britain would be putting a perceived Brexit ‘dividend’ of £350 million a week towards the NHS, the Prime Minister had said: "We will be, as part of the negotiations, we’ll be ensuring that we’re not paying those significant sums in the future.

"We will then be able to see what the size of that dividend will be and then determine how that money is spent, what we’re going to do with that. There’s lots of things to think about.

(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

She added: “During the referendum campaign there were points made, often very passionately on both sides of the argument.

"We’re now beyond the referendum - we’re now at the point where we’re putting this into practice.

“We’re starting what are going to be complex, challenging, but I think achievable negotiations. And I’m optimistic about what we can achieve in the future."

But she suggested the NHS pledge was not really what people voted for.

She said: “What people voted for is for us to have control, and that’s what we’ll have.”

Labour MP Chuka Umunna - around the time of the campaign - accused the "deeply misleading" claims trying to "deceive the British public".

"Just when you thought the desperate Leave campaign could not sink any lower, they plaster a deeply misleading figure across their flagship bus," he said.

"Every single credible economic body, from businesses to trades unions to the Bank of England are clear that our economy is stronger in Europe.

"Leaving would hit our economy hard and mean less money for public services like the NHS.

"Vote Leave have no arguments to make on the economy and so instead are reduced to deeply disingenuous claims to try and deceive the British public."