In drama about his landmark interview with Margaret Thatcher

Steve Coogan is to play heavyweight political interviewer  Brian Walden in a dramatisation of a watershed encounter he had with Margaret Thatcher.

 Harriet Walter will play the Prime Minister in Brian and Margaret, which revolves around a 45-minute showdown in 1989 that became a national talking point and set in train a series of events that ended with Thatcher’s resignation.

The show is being made by Coogan’s company, Baby Cow Productions, and directed by Stephen Frears and written by acclaimed playwright James Graham based on the book Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me: Searching For The Truth In Political TV by Rob Burley.

Coogan said: ‘It’s great to be telling a story from the era of the sorely missed forensic interview - two giants of their time locking horns to determine the future of Britain.’

Walter added: ‘I have to travel a great distance to reach Maggie Thatcher but with James’s brilliant script, Stephen Frears to guide me and Steve Coogan to accompany me I have the dream team to help me achieve it."

And Graham said: ‘As we enter another election, and wrestle with the importance and effectiveness of the political interview, it’s a chance to bring to life the intimate and complicated relationship between Brian Walden and Margaret Thatcher – interrogator, and Prime Minister. An epic one of love and betrayal, and I think an audience will be surprised by a lot of it. I know I was.’

The drama will play out in two hour-long episodes on Channel 4, but no date has yet been announced.

Published: 17 Jun 2024