Brian and Maggie

I was around when the televised interview between former Labour politician turned television presenter Brian Walden and the then serving Prime Minister, the formidable Margaret Thatcher took place, although I don't remember it being quite as consequential as this two part dramatisation would perhaps indicate. Nevertheless portraying real life interviews can make for good television and sometiimes cinema, as witness the Frost-Nixon exchanges, the two recent programmes on the Prince Andrew / Emily Maitlis tete-a-tete on the BBC "Newsnight" show and I can even recall the infamous exchange between rival football managers Don Revie and Brian Clough being made into a very watchable drama starring Michael Sheen and Colm Meaney a few years back. There's just something about a head-to-head confrontation between two usually media-savvy individuals striving to put across their point of view, although the ones we tend to remember are the ones that go wrong for the interviewee, another recent example being the catastrophic Michelle Mone interview with Laura Kuenssberg. People might also mention the most famous one of all, Princess Diana's confessional outpouring to Martin Bashir, which captivated the nation, but Bashir hardly took the offensive on that occasion and clearly was cleverly played by a Princess determined to have her point of view put across.

Still, this well-made programme certainly brought back the dog-days of Thatcher's near 11-year reign as Prime Minister, and indeed, within months of the broadcast, she had indeed been forced to resign by her own Party, at last sick and tired up of her autocratic ways, ruling her cabinet by dictat rather than consensus.

The show uses the by-now familiar format of retrospectively inserting into the present-day narrative, which actually doesn't amount to much more than watching Walden and Thatcher prepare for the interview, the preceding events, taking us back to Walden's own days in the Commons and Thatcher's surprise rise to power. I'm not sure I recall Walden ever being talked of as a future Labour leader as the show states but he assuredly was up there with the Robin Day's and the Dimbleby brothers as the grand inquisitors of the day.

A picture is built up of a growing mutual respect and possibly even a friendship between the two protagonists with the indication that this led to Walden going soft on Thatcher with each succeeding interview. In the end, Thatcher perhaps takes her relationship with Walden for granted, not receiving his calls and Walden at last reacting adversely to this as well as the promptings of his editorial team that he go on the offensive for once.

That he certainly does in the actual interview, with Thatcher, who coincidentally was at a particular crisis point in her administration with the recent shock resignation of her "unassailable" long-serving Chancellor Nigel Lawson, visibly bristling with each incisive thrust of Walden's. It's no surprise then to learn in a subtitle displayed over the end credits that the pair never talked again after the show.

The two episodes here seemed a bit fleshed out but nevertheless were well staged and very well acted by Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter in the lead parts. I just hope, well-made as they often are, that these heightened dramatisations of documented real-life events never get confused with the real thing! In these days of AI and fake news, you just never know!

Offers a brilliant insight into point at which Thatcher's stony facade began to crumble - Harriet Walter's turn is a brilliant piece of acting, and Coogan is incredibly arresting also. While far from sympathetic, this is a more nuanced Thatcher, certainly calculated and cunning, but also vulnerable and dare I say, feminine. Indeed this femininity was partially used against her at her downfall. The misogyny veiled as good traditional (or 'moral') values that she championed with such vehemence was ultimately used against her in the later years: this is all subtly hinted at here. Another gem in the dramatisational canon of the Thatcherite years.

The program is excellent, but there were more nuances in reality. There were many radical changes under Margaret Thatcher, but by the third term there was already hubris that had caused rumblings, especially over the "poll tax". The real interview was not an obvious defeat, and much longer. The programmes apparent claim that the interview was the start of Margaret Thatcher's downfall is therefore misleading. Plots were already happening because of Lawson's departure and later because of Howe's speech. The epilogue with Margaret Thatcher holding forth after her resignation, looked like a eulogy for her policies, that are now the political norm. Steve Coogan's ability to slip into an character is remarkable. Harriet Walter looked more like Nancy Reagan, but had the right voice and mannerisms. I would say it is a successful, thought-provoking programme.

Steve Coogan slips under the skin of the great TV interviewer Brian Walden in a great performance matched by Harriet Walters subtle performance as Margaret Thatcher.

For me this is unbelievably nostalgic as I was a junior cameraman at LWT during the 80's and regularly operated Brian's camera on Weekend World. The depiction of the show itself is very realistic, for the camera crew it was almost as intense as for the politician under Brian Walden's sharp and relentless questioning.

The depiction of LWT and its Studios is a little off as it was a bright modern building even in the 1980's. It is a shame that the filmmakers could not shoot in the real studio, it has been closed since 2018 and is finally being demolished as I write this review.

I wont say anything about the 'cameraman' background artist shown with his hands off the controls mid interview.... You couldn't get away with this with Brian as he squirmed around too much!

RIP Brian Walden, you were the best political interviewer that has ever been. Steve Coogan does you proud.

Despite James Graham's strong track record in political drama, Brian and Maggie fails to deliver the punch it promises. While Steve Coogan's Brian Walden is an impressive mimicry, his character lacks depth, making his off-screen moments feel as stiff as his on-screen ones. Harriet Walter's Margaret Thatcher faces a similar struggle-her performance is hampered by artificial visual choices that create a layer of detachment rather than authenticity. The chemistry between the two leads never quite sparks, leaving their evolving dynamic feeling flat. Stephen Frears' direction only adds to the sluggishness, with long, drawn-out sequences that drain the tension from critical political exchanges.

Beyond its structural and performance issues, the drama also tiptoes around the deeper consequences of Thatcherism. The economic policies that defined her era-deregulation, slashed taxes for the rich, and an all-out assault on workers' rights-aren't meaningfully explored. Instead, the script reduces the political backdrop to broad ideological soundbites, avoiding the reality of how Thatcher's economic model widened the gap between rich and poor, leading to an oligarchic system where billionaires rule as they like because they just buy politicians for shilling on the quid of return. What could have been a searing critique of power and media influence instead becomes a safe, superficial reenactment, missing the chance to expose the lasting damage of an era that still shapes Britain today.