In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism,...
Michael Cockerell tells the story of how prime ministers have coped with life after Number Ten, after Tony Blair became the youngest member of the ex-PMs' club for a hundred years. The film reveals who left office bankrupt, who did TV commercials for Cheshire cheese, who had his own chat show and...
It begins with cheers but almost always ends in tears. Yet, as the election looms, competition for the top job grows ever more intense. Why? The hours are terrible, money so-so, job security non-existent. On the plus side, there's free accommodation in central London and probably more power over...
Harold Wilson and Edward Heath are two very different men equally overlooked by history, but they were the political titans of the era in which Britain changed for ever. For ten years they faced each other in the House of Commons, and swapped in and out of Number Ten. They fought four general...
In the latest how-to-do-it guide, Michael Cockerell films behind the scenes in the normally secretive Home Office. As well as crime, prisons and MI5, the Home Secretary is responsible for nudist beaches, mad dogs and massage parlours. Jack Straw and his predecessors talk candidly about the...
A revealing one-off documentary that provides an inside view of how Tony Blair and former prime ministers - including Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and John Major - have run their cabinet, the highest decision-making body in the land. Through candid interviews, rare archive footage and filming...
Michael Cockerell talks to all of the surviving people to hold the post of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs including the current incumbent, and invites the viewer to imagine their life in the position.
A Film Portrait of Edward Heath. Edward Heath was one of the most controversial Prime Ministers this century. He took Britain into Europe, but was brought down by the very trades unions he sought to tame. In an intimate Portrait Sir Edward talks candidly about his life and career, and of his stormy...
