PRIME mover

STEVE COOGAN and DAME HARRIET WALTER on recreating a political exchange that spelled the end for Margaret Thatcher's time in Downing Street

- 

BRIAN AND MAGGIE NEW WED & THU, 9PM, C4 DRAMA (BOX SET, CHANNEL 4)

The questions are prepped, the sound is checked, and the cameras are ready to roll as C4's much-anticipated new drama Brian and Maggie revisits a now-infamous interview that changed the course of British politics.

Penned by award-winning screenwriter James Graham (Sherwood), the two-part series transports us back to Sunday 29 October 1989 when then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Dame Harriet Walter) sat down with Labour MP-turned-journalist Brian Walden (Steve Coogan) for an exchange that sparked a chain of events that would result in the Conservative leader handing in her resignation the following year.

The showdown also proved the final act in the Iron Lady and Brian's friendship, which had blossomed during a host of on-screen discussions over the previous decade.

Here, I'm Alan Partridge star Steve, 59, and The Crown actor Harriet, 74, give us their take...

So, how did your involvement with this drama come about?

STEVE I got a message from [former political editor and TV producer] Rob Burley, who wrote a book about the history of the political interview [published in 2023]. He came across this quite meaningful friendship between Brian Walden and Margaret Thatcher, which he thought could be a TV show and said, 'You should play Brian Walden.'