The Deal is a 2003 British television film directed by Stephen Frears from a script by Peter Morgan, based in part upon The Rivals by James Naughtie. The film stars David Morrissey as Gordon Brown and Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, and depicts the Blair-Brown deal—a well-documented pact that Blair and Brown made whereby Brown would not stand in the 1994 Labour leadership election, so that Blair could have a clear run at becoming leader of the party and Prime Minister. The film begins on 9 June 1983, as Blair and Brown are first elected to Parliament, and concludes in May 1994 at the Granita restaurant—the location of the supposed agreement—with a brief epilogue following the leadership contest. The film was first proposed by Morgan in late 2002 and was taken on by Granada Television for ITV. After Frears agreed to direct, and the cast were signed on, ITV pulled out of it over fears that the political sensitivity could affect its corporate merger. Channel 4 picked up the production and filming was carried out for five weeks in May 2003. The film was broadcast on 28 September 2003, the weekend prior to the Labour Party's annual party conference. The film was critically lauded. Morrissey received considerable praise, winning a Royal Television Society award for playing Brown, and Frears was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television Movie/Serial by the Directors Guild of Great Britain. The film also nominated for an International Emmy for Best TV Movie/Miniseries. Sheen later reunited with Morgan, Frears, and producer Christine Langan in 2006 to reprise his role as Blair in The Queen, that depicts the death of Princess Diana on 31 August 1997. Sheen reprised his role once again in 2010 in The Special Relationship, that chronicles the "special relationship" between Blair and US President Bill Clinton up until the September 11 attacks, and was broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom and HBO in North America.
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A drama about the shifting power in a marriage when the personal and political collide.
Drama series about the private lives of seven British prime ministers who lived in Number 10 Downing Street between the 1780s and the 1920s: William Pitt the Younger, the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley), Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd-George, Herbert Henry Asquith and James Ramsay MacDonald.
A Very British Coup is a British political thriller series based on the novel by Chris Mullin. It stars Ray McAnally as the newly elected left-wing prime minister Harry Perkins, who soon finds himself up to his neck in conspiracy.
GBH was a seven-part British television drama written by Alan Bleasdale shown in the summer of 1991 on Channel 4. The protagonists were Michael Murray, the Militant tendency-supporting Labour leader of a city council in the North of England and Jim Nelson, the headmaster of a school for disturbed children. The series was controversial partly because Murray appeared to be based on Derek Hatton, former Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council — in an interview in the G.B.H. DVD Bleasdale recounts an accidental meeting with Hatton before the series, who indicates that he has caught wind of Bleasdale's intentions but does not mind as long as the actor playing him is "handsome". In normal parlance, the initials "GBH" refer to the criminal charge of grievous bodily harm - however, the actual intent of the letters is that it is supposed to stand for Great British Holiday.
Sir Oswald Mosley was a man who should have ranked with the heroes of the century... Instead his personal life and public career ended in disgrace and Mosley is now remembered as the leader of a dictatorial populist movement in the decade before WWII.
A ten-part serial based on Jeffrey Archer's 1984 novel of the same name, which follows the careers and personal lives of a quartet of fictional Parliament members from 1964 to 1991, with each vying to become Prime Minister.
The minister, his mistress, and her lover the spy. The story of the woman at the centre of one of the 20th century's biggest scandals – which changed Britain forever.
The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
The First Churchills is a 1969 twelve-part BBC television serial starring John Neville as John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and Susan Hampshire as his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. Written and produced by Donald Wilson, and directed by David Giles, the series is notable as being the first programme shown on PBS's long-running Masterpiece series in the United States.
The Alan Clark Diaries is a television serial dramatising the colourful diaries of controversial British Conservative politician Alan Clark. The six-episode series was transmissioned from 15 January to 19 February 2004 on BBC Four.
Francis Urquhart's survival at the top is threatened by the new king's populist agenda.
There's a Prime Minister in the attic, a coffee bar in the basement, and a wallpapered labyrinth of romance, crisis and heartbreak in-between. Set in the only terrace house in history with mice and a nuclear deterrent, it's the only knock-through in the world where a hangover can start a war. The government will be fictional and unspecific, but the problems will be real. We'll never know which party is in power, because once the whole world hits the fan it barely matters.
The Politician's Wife is a British television political drama written by Paula Milne, broadcast on Channel 4 in 1995 and starring Trevor Eve and Juliet Stevenson. The story centres around high-flying politician Duncan Matlock, Families Minister for the UK Government, who becomes embroiled in tabloid scandal as it is discovered that he has been having an affair with a former escort turned parliamentary researcher. Duncan's wife Flora becomes the focus of media attention as her reactions to the revelations are played out. Initially she plays out the part of the loyal wife, but as an aide of her husband feeds her details about the affair and various other political scandals that could be made to happen. She begins to sabotage her husband's integrity and reputation through a campaign of leaks and misinformation to the press and British Conservative Party stalwarts. After a series of increasingly sensational and damaging stories in the press, her husband is forced to resign in humiliation. The last episode closes with the results of the by-election being announced on TV. Flora Matlock wins with the support of her party whilst her husband is exiled to a minor post in Belgium.
Politician Peter Laurence's private life is falling apart. Shamelessly untroubled by guilt or remorse, he seeks to further his own agenda whilst others plot to bring him down. Can he out-run his own secrets to win the ultimate prize?
When the British prime minister's husband is kidnapped and the French president starts receiving threats, both leaders must face an impossible choice.
A 1994 war television miniseries which portrays Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin as they maneuver their countries through several of the major events of World War II - such events include the Blitz, Operation Barbarossa, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the North African Campaign, the Allied invasion of Italy, and concluding with the Tehran Conference.
The Project is a BBC two-part 2002 television drama, directed by Peter Kosminsky from a script by Leigh Jackson. The series presented a fictionalised account, seen through the experiences of three young activists, of developments in the Labour Party and its progress into Blairism, from the party's failure to win the 1992 General Election through its election victory in 1997 to its re-election victory in 2001.
Frustrated at a new moderate Conservative government and deprived of a promotion to a senior position, chief whip Francis Urquhart prepares a meticulous plot to bring down the Prime Minister then to take his place.
It's the late 1960s, homosexuality has only just been legalised and Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal party, has a secret he's desperate to hide.
Inside the halls of power, Boris Johnson grapples with Covid-19, Brexit, and a controversial personal and political life during his tumultuous first months as Prime Minister.