Steve Coogan shines in Brian and Maggie, a love letter to the political interview
In December 2019, at the end of an interview with Nigel Farage – then the leader of the Brexit Party – the BBC's Andrew Neil turned to the camera and addressed the prime minister, Boris Johnson. 'No broadcaster can compel a politician to be interviewed,' said Neil, 'but leaders' interviews have been a key part of BBC election coverage for decades.' Having watched Farage, Nicola Sturgeon, Jo Swinson and his Labour rival Jeremy Corbyn face the Neil hairdryer treatment, Johnson had opted out. A few days later, he won an 80-seat majority. Now, Channel 4 charts the story of the decline and fall of the political interview in a new drama, Brian and Maggie, which captures the art form at its seminal moment.
It's 1989 and Brian Walden (Steve Coogan) is Britain's pre-eminent political interviewer. His next interview is with the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher (Harriet Walter), who he has known for decades since they sat opposite one another in the Commons: Walden as a young Labour MP, Thatcher, his Tory counterpart. In the intervening years, they have met many times, with Walden serving as both interrogator and confidante. 'He's your favourite for a reason,' Bernard Ingham (Paul Clayton) soothes the PM on their way to the ITV studio. 'It'll be a walk in the park.' And yet it proves anything but, and their heavyweight, primetime clash marks, for many, the moment when Thatcher's defenestration became inevitable.
The two-part drama, scripted by James Graham and returning to the political ground of Coalition and Brexit: The Uncivil War, is based on a book by TV producer Rob Burley called Why is this Lying Bastard Lying to Me? Burley calls the clash between Walden and Thatcher the 'high watermark' of political interviewing, and contrasts it, favourably, with the desecration of the format in the Johnson era and beyond. And so, in its conception, Brian and Maggie is nostalgic for democratic norms. For a time when politicians answered the bloody question. For a time, even, when there was a strict delineation between politician and journalist. 'An MP with a regular spot on television, wouldn't that be…' Walden begins. 'Unethical?' a producer finishes his sentence, 'Yes.' Walden resigned his seat to become a journalist – unlike Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson and all the other MPs who have hosted chat shows during their time in parliament, and find themselves in the crosshairs here.
The star of the show here is Walden. Coogan, always a superb mimic, nails the noticeable speech impediment (trouble pronouncing the letter r) and Black Country accent. He inhabits Walden's stolid lack of glamour (a trait shared by great interviewers of this ilk, from Robin Day to Andrew Neil), allowing only his eyes to speak the truth of his ambition. Walter's Thatcher, on the other hand, feels slightly off. She has one of the great faces of British acting, instantly making her characters, from Fanny in Sense and Sensibility to Caroline in Succession, piercingly intense. It is an odd fit for Thatcher, whose softer features were strikingly juxtaposed with her manner. And while performances from actors like Meryl Streep and Gillian Anderson have leaned, at times cartoonishly, into Thatcher's voice and mannerisms, Walter's is less instantly recognisable. That – along with the significant age gap between Walter and her subject – might be judged impressionistic, were the rest of the drama not recreated with such loving attention to period detail.
But Thatcher is a tricky role to play anyway. In the same way that Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard's adaptation of Peter Morgan's play, privileged Frost's interiority over that of his iconic subject, so too does Brian and Maggie (directed by Stephen Frears) use, primarily, the journalist's perspective. Walden – who had considered defecting to the Tories over concerns about Labour's far-left move, and went on to be a speechwriter for Thatcher during her time in No 10 – saw a kinship between himself and the prime minister. 'People like us,' he tells her, 'they wouldn't let us in if we were weak.' Figures like Nigel Lawson (Ivan Kaye) and Geoffrey Howe (Paul Higgins) orbit like stray establishment bodies, bound to the gravitational pull of this Midlands odd couple.
Over the two 50-minute episodes, tension builds towards its unavoidable conclusion. Graham, who is, it's no secret, left-leaning, stomachs some admiration for Thatcher's willingness to have her feet held to the fire. It is, after all, what has been lost in the 45 years since this moment. 'Now it's all breakfast TV bollocks, cosy chitchats on the sofa,' Walden laments. And so even though the work is more politically equivocal than might be expected from the triumvirate of Frears, Graham and Coogan, it is still effectively polemical. Not in terms of refighting battles over the poll tax or the exchange rate mechanism, but in its sheer frustration with the way that scrutiny has been systematically eroded.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
36 minutes ago
- Daily Record
SNP 'overlooking Scottish industry' as historic bus manufacturer threatens move to England
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the English city had invested more in Scottish-built buses than the SNP Government. The SNP Government has been accused of "overlooking Scottish industry" after an historic bus manufacturer announced plans to close two factories and switch production to England. More than 400 jobs are at risk after Alexander Dennis said this week it intended to close its plants in Camelon and Larbert and centralise operations in Scarborough. The announcement is a fresh blow for the Falkirk district after the recent closure of the refinery in nearby Grangemouth. Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, today pressed SNP ministers over why they had not secured more orders for Alexander Dennis compared to his own region. The Falkirk-based firm provided more than 160 brand new buses for the English city as part of a major investment in its public transport network. The company, owned by a Canadian parent firm, employs 1,950 people in the UK, with its biggest plant in Larbert. It also has a UK supply chain employing a further 6,350 people. "Our iconic Bee Network buses are a bit of Scotland right here in Greater Manchester," said Burnham. "We have over 160 Alexander Dennis buses criss-crossing our city-region every day - connecting our communities to opportunity. "If Greater Manchester can invest in world-class Scottish bus manufacturing then why can't the SNP Scottish Government? "Meeting the ADL staff in Falkirk who have helped us to make the Bee Network a reality is always a pleasure and my thoughts are with them at this difficult time." Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said: "Just as we have seen with the SNP opting to order lifeline ferries from Turkey, Ministers are once again overlooking Scottish industry. "Alexander Dennis buses are already serving passengers successfully across Greater Manchester, yet SNP ministers appear unwilling to give their full backing to the company for the benefit of people here. "John Swinney promised this scheme would 'open up new economic opportunities', but he has failed to turn those words into action. "If the First Minister is serious about boosting Scotland's economy and supporting workers, he should start by investing in Scottish workers." Kate Forbes, the Deputy First Minister, said yesterday: "This will be a hugely worrying time for the workforce at Alexander Dennis, their families and the wider community. 'In recent weeks, the Scottish Government has engaged extensively with Alexander Dennis and its parent company NFI to understand the issues and ensure that every possible avenue is explored to mitigate the need for redundancies. "This has included discussions with myself, the First Minister, leadership within Scottish Enterprise and Transport Scotland and the UK Government. 'The Scottish Government will continue to explore any and all options throughout the consultation period to allow the firm to retain their hard-working employees and manufacturing and production facilities at Falkirk and Larbert. "In the event of any job losses, the Scottish Government will provide support through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment initiative."
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Rachel Reeves latest: chancellor ‘disappointed' over economy shrink
Rachel Reeves could not outline where migrants would be accommodated if not in hotels, after she said Labour would stop the use of them by the end of the parliament. She said more people would be deported, but the most recent figures showed crossings were on the up. The chancellor said that cheaper accomodation would be found but did not give details when quizzed over the plans by Stig Abell on Times Radio. By Aubrey Allegretti Inevitably, the chancellor is facing questions about whether she will hike taxes in her next budget. Economists believe she will be forced to, and today Rachel Reeves has notably not ruled it out. Instead, she has sought to downplay the scale of any potential tax rises, saying she will not have to repeat a budget on the scale of her last one in October, which saw hikes worth £40 billion. That lack of denial over further increases is not unexpected, but still conspicuous. Reeves suggests that it would be unwise to write future budgets given global instability, but given the recent promise of a winter fuel reversal, uncertainty is not always due to external factors. There are pressures on her to scrap the two-child benefit cap and water down welfare reforms, so the demands for further spending rises by Labour MPs will only grow louder in the months ahead. Rachel Reeves has denied that she is a 'Klarna chancellor' who announced a 'buy now, pay later' spending review. Asked whether she accepted that characterisation, she told LBC Radio: 'I don't accept that at all.' She added: 'The idea that yesterday I racked up a bill that I'm going to need to pay for in the future, that's just not right. 'Last year I had to increase taxes. I have now allocated that money in the spending review on health, security and economic growth, but everything yesterday was fully costed and fully funded from the budget.' Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor's tax rises have inhibited economic growth. Writing in The Times, the leader of the Conservatives, said: 'Labour's spending review shows how unserious they are. More debt. More borrowing. More fantasy economics. We are facing an absurd situation where, because Labour have raised taxes and thereby killed growth, they will now have to raise taxes even further. We can't afford four more years of this.' Economists have warned tax rises are 'almost inevitable' in the autumn because of the strain on the public finances. Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist at Oxford Economics, said: 'It looks increasingly likely that substantial tax increases will be needed in the autumn budget. 'Considering the plans require large efficiency savings, departments may find it hard to stick to the targets … [the] spending review leaves the impression of being a stopgap, rather than a durable plan.' Rachel Reeves has said she is 'not trying to win a popularity contest' after being challenged over her personal ratings. The ITv presenter Richard Madley claimed on Good Morning Britain that polling showed Reeves was more unpopular than Kwasi Kwarteng after the 'debacle' of the winter fuel payment reversal. The chancellor said that she had taken difficult fiscal decisions in the national interest. She said that 'not enough people' were feeling the impact of measures, but that she had 'put money into things to grow the economy'. Rachel Reeves refused to rule out ending the two-child benefits cap, saying the government was committed to reducing child poverty. She said there would be a report on poverty in the autumn. It has been reported that ministers are looking at ways to end the cap, a move that would take hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. Rachel Reeves has ruled out a reversal on cuts to disability benefits after criticism by backbench MPs. 'We need to help people into work. There's a thousand people a day going on disability benefits. The number of economically inactive is rising', the chancellor said. Reeves said Labour was putting £1 billion into a back-to-work scheme. 'We can't carry on as we are,' she said. Rachel Reeves said there was 'no reason' why officer numbers would decline after criticism from police chiefs. The National Police Chiefs' Council had said that her spending measures would cut headcount to balance the books. 'There's no reason for those numbers to decline,' the chancellor said, adding that the 'spending power of police is going up'. 'I wasn't able to say yes to everything', she added. Rachel Reeves used her spending review to announce plans to 'renew Britain', betting that £20 billion a year in extra funding for public infrastructure such as railways, roads and power would spur the economy and improve living standards by the time voters go to the polls. Among the biggest winners were defence and the NHS. The health service will enjoy a £29 billion rise in its budget, amounting to a real-terms 3 per cent rise in day-to-day spending. Defence spending will increase to hit the government target of spending 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027. Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out further tax rises as she dismissed 'sluggish' growth figures. The chancellor said April had been a 'challenging' month due to tariffs and economic uncertainty. 'It was challenging because of your tax rises last year', the BBC's Nick Robinson said. Reeves said that exports had been hit by US tariffs and that the three trade deals signed since then would improve the outlook.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
'Ballymena riots are not noble acts to protect women - they are racist attacks'
Riots broke out this week in Ballymena, a small Northern Irish town following the arrest of two 14-year-old boys following an alleged sexual assault on June 7. The Mirror reported that 2,500 people amassed in the Harryville area of the town on Tuesday evening, a day after both of the youths denied charges of attempted oral sexual assault at a magistrates court. Further protests were seen on June 11 spreading across Ballymena, and other towns Larne and Coleraine. This may seem noble on the surface: locals taking to the streets to protect women and girls. If this was the case, these same rioters would be out on the streets week on week, as violence against women is endemic in Northern Ireland. The riots, however, are a veneer for the racism that lurks beneath. These men have not taken to the streets out of the goodness of their hearts to ensure safe passage for everyone to live happy, harmonious lives. June 11 marked the third night of unrest in the town, with 17 police officers injured. The Police Service of Northern Ireland in a statement said of June 10's violence that they 'sustained attack over a number of hours with multiple petrol bombs, heavy masonry, bricks and fireworks' thrown at officers. Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said: 'The mindless violence witnessed over the past two nights in Ballymena is deeply concerning and utterly unacceptable. These criminal acts not only endanger lives but also risk undermining the ongoing criminal justice process led by the PSNI in support of a victim who deserves truth, justice, and protection.' In a statement to Belfast Live, Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson added that the 'violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police.' This, to me, is reminiscent of the stoked racist hatred that erupted in the wake of the Southport attacks of July 2024. Of these attacks, CNN reported that: 'far-right agitators [had] mobilized around online misinformation and hateful, anti-migrant and anti-Muslim narratives.' It is no secret that far-right extremists exploit the pain of horrendous crimes or allegations of crime, like the Southport murders of three girls and the recent alleged sexual assault in Ballymena, for their own gain. It is right out of their playbook to turn this hurt into rage against a targeted group. In the Ballymena unrest, two properties were set alight, one on Bridge Street while the other is a home on Queen Street. Windows were smashed on other homes, as residents took to putting up signs displaying their nationality of the occupiers. 'British household' one reads, while another says "Filipino lives here". This is abhorrent. No society can achieve equality, in any respect, through fear. It is a relief to see that the political leaders of Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom stand against this hatred. First Minister Michele O'Neill has called the attacks 'abhorrent', while Prime Minister Keir Starmer 'utterly condemns the violence'. But this condemnation is not totally universal, nor without caveats. TUV MP for North Antrim, Jim Alister, said on BBC Radio Ulster: 'It would be foolish to ignore the fact that there is a racial connotation to this matter. 'Violence wherever it comes from is wrong, but the context of this situation needs to be addressed. The context is that there has been unhindered migration, particularly from the Republic [of Ireland], of people of Roma extraction into Ballymena. That has been building tension for years.' Women deserve safety, security, and respect. Nothing short of total equality. That applies no matter your background. There is no room for racism in any society. We must not accept these attacks as anything but what they are: racist attacks.
