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.
