Boris Johnson first caught the public's eye in 1998 while still working as a journalist, he had a guest spot on the popular BBC One panel show Have I Got News For You.
The TV studio audience and viewers at home saw that shock blonde hair and famous Bertie Wooster bluster for the first time and lapped it up, watching the clip back now you can see both the seeds of his success and failure.
He mumbles, jokes and laughs at himself - giving an air of authenticity and charm. But the subject matter of his interactions with Ian Hislop are anything but pleasant, the Private Eye editor lightly grills Johnson over a now famous recording in which he agrees to help get a journalist friend attacked over a story.
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As has so often been the case in his long career we have two Johnsons, the boosterish buffoon - happy to perform for the cameras and in the Commons chamber, and the brutal Machiavellian who will do anything it takes to further his career.
It was for that reason he abandoned newspapers, he famously quipped to a colleague before running as a Tory MP - "no one puts up statues to journalists".
But his wasn't a smooth path to the Number 10 door. After getting elected in 2001, Johnson quickly began to climb the Tory ranks - then leader Michael Howard deemed him to be the most popular Conservative politician with the electorate and appointed him vice-chairman of the party. In his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle of May 2004, Howard appointed Johnson to the position of shadow arts minister.
Johnson was unceremoniously sacked however, after details of an affair were published. Like so often has been the case, he denied the story, then obfuscated, before eventually admitting it after it was proven beyond doubt. Howard asked Johnson to resign, he refused and was then sacked - sound familiar?
Johnson's rise continued however, in 2008 he became London Mayor - no mean feat in a traditionally Labour city. This victory and his subsequent re-election in 2012 cemented his status as an election-winning machine, the great blonde hope of the Tory party. But along the way he picked up more scandal, there were more widely reported affairs and allegations of impropriety - but Johnson was able to duck and dive.
A key moment that will define him is of course Brexit. Being a Machiavel, Johnson famously wrote out two letters in the month preceding the referendum vote, one backing Britain's exit and another arguing we should remain. In the end, he took a calculated gamble and plumped for Leave, becoming the poster boy for the campaign. As has widely been documented, Johnson didn't believe Leave would win - his decision was based more on winning over sections of the Tory party to aide his ambition to one day be Prime Minister.
After David Cameron's exit, Johnson was the favourite but his hopes were famously dashed after backer Michael Gove withdrew support at the eleventh hour. What followed was a brief stint as foreign secretary in Theresa May's Government. During that time Johnson managed to cause an international storm after suggesting charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was then imprisoned in Iran, was a journalist - making her release more difficult. He also caused outrage after reciting lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem Mandalay while visiting a Myanmar temple, the British ambassador, who was with him, suggested it was "not appropriate".
Eventually, Johnson returned to the backbenches in protest over the Brexit negotiations. In the year that followed he and his supporters threw stones from the sidelines and ultimately toppled May's Government. He swept to power in July 2019 promising an oven-ready Brexit deal and pledged to level up our towns and cities.
The collapse of the administration in Stormont and continued difficulties with the Northern Ireland Protocol clearly demonstrate that not to have been the case. On levelling up, many of the most deprived areas have missed out on funding and on transport Northern Powerhouse Rail has been scaled back.
With most of his big projects undelivered, Johnson's government will likely be remembered for two things, Brexit and the scandals. We've had Wallpapergate, Partygate, the Owen Paterson affair, the Chris Pincher affair, the illegal prorogation of Parliament and that's before the Covid inquiry has even started taking evidence. It's important to reflect that as that first Have I Got News For You appearance shows, Boris Johnson hasn't changed, it's just that the audience has.
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