‘We had no political agenda’: the White House hosts a West Wing TV reunion

The marine band struck up a familiar theme. The door of the Oval Office swung open. Out strode the president and first lady to address an expectant crowd - that is, the real first lady, Jill Biden, and the president that fans of the TV show The West Wing used to secretly crave: Jed Bartlet, alias actor Martin Sheen.

After a decade in which US politics has often felt like the work of a hyper-imaginative screenwriter, with ever more unlikely plot twists including the election of a reality TV star, it felt strangely natural to see Sheen stepping into the shoes of Joe Biden as his show's theme music filled the Rose Garden.

"We just came from the Oval," said Jill Biden. "But even though Joe is away hosting leaders of Australia and India and Japan in Delaware, he wanted to make sure that President Bartlet and his staff had a chance to see the Oval Office again."

Sheen and fellow cast members had come to the White House to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first episode of The West Wing, the seven-season drama about an idealist liberal president and his fast-talking staff.

On Friday, in warm sunshine, there were references to "big blocks of cheese" - a tradition on the show of requiring presidential staffers to meet with eccentric or offbeat constituents - and the walk-and-talk dialogues in which characters moved through the halls at high speed. Waiters passed out bourbon-and-ginger ale cocktails called the Jackal, a reference to press secretary CJ Cregg's dance and lip-sync routine in one episode.

Sheen - who has said his character was a conglomeration of Democrats John F Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton - rolled back the years. In classic Bartlet mode, he exhorted the crowd to find something worth fighting for, "something deeply personal and uncompromising, something that can unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh".

Then Aaron Sorkin, the show's creator, declared: "Our cast will live on as one of the best in the history of television," and recognised those in attendance. Among them were Richard Schiff, who played communications director Toby Ziegler; Janel Moloney, who played assistant Donna Moss; and Dulé Hill, who played the president's body man, Charlie Young.