Queen Elizabeth has worked with 14 Prime Ministers, including holding confidential weekly meetings. It is not known whether she has influenced her Prime Ministers, or what happens when they clash.
It was the exact same effect induced by Michael Cockerell’s film Boris Johnson: the Irresistible Rise last night on BBC Two. Regardless of what you think of Johnson’s politics or predilections, the man is TV gold. In the name of journalistic objectivity Cockerell’s film dutifully included musings from Boris’s sister Rachel, his father Stanley, former editors and school chums. Some of it was moderately revealing, but the money shot was the blond bombshell, live and unleashed.
Michael Cockerell sheds new light on the tragi-comedy of the 1970s by focusing on some of its most controversial characters. With fresh filming and new interviews, along with a treasure trove of rare archive, the film presents the inside story of giant personalities who make today's public figures look sadly dull in comparison. The well-known journalist revisits some of his films on the big characters who helped shaped the 1970s in Britain. Both tragic and comic, it highlights just how much our world has changed in four decades.
With Britain's first-ever political leaders' television debate imminent, award-winning reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers what it's like to take part in these contests and how leaders try to win them. He tells the inside story of why it has taken so long for such debates to arrive in the UK. The programme features candid interviews with US Presidents and their advisers on the tricks of the debate trade. Blending new film and behind-the-scenes footage, some never seen before, it's a tragicomic tale of high politics and low cunning. From John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon through to Barack Obama, candidates are seen being prepared for their debates, then in the sometimes funny, sometimes disastrous results on live television. Cockerell shows why for our would-be next Prime Ministers - Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg - the three debate stages across Britain will be what one former US President calls 'Tension City'.
Three-part series in which award-winning reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers the secret world of Whitehall, showing what the trio of great offices - Home, Foreign and Treasury - are really like.
Michael Cockerell tells the inside story of Tony Blair's controversial ten years at the top. Candid interviews with Downing Street insiders, Cabinet colleagues and rivals cast new light on key events and on the Prime Minister's complex character.
Whips pride themselves on their secrecy and discretion. Reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers their shadowy world and reveals how they operate. How close to reality is the fictional Chief Whip Francis Urquhart, in the drama series House of Cards? Government Whips can make or break ministers and ensure they know all the secrets of the private lives of their fellow MPs. One Tory MP claims that the Whips are a gestapo, but another says they are democracy's unsung heroes - as necessary for Parliament as sewers are for civilisation.
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