Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter star in the show (Image: CHANNEL 4)
Brian and Maggie is a dramatisation of Margaret Thatcher’s final TV interview with broadcaster Brian Walden (portrayed by Steve Coogan), an event that fractured their relationship. After stepping down as a Labour MP, Brian was sought after to host a political programme centred on in-depth interviews.
He forms an unexpected connection with his first guest, Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher (Harriet Walter). However, the 1989 interview would trigger a series of consequences leading to her resignation the following year.
The tale of their friendship was previously delved into in James Burley’s 2023 book titled Why Is This Lying B****** Lying To Me?. It has now been adapted into a Channel 4 drama set to air from January 29.
In reality, the pair bonded over their modest upbringings. Walden hailed from a trade background before earning a scholarship to Oxford.
It took him several attempts to secure a seat as a Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, but he grew disenchanted with the party and even contemplated defecting after Thatcher was elected Conservative leader in 1975. Instead of defecting, he resigned in 1997 and shifted his focus to broadcasting, securing his own show called The Walden Interview.
Broadcaster and former Labour MP Brian Walden with then prime minister Margaret Thatcher (Image: PA)
Thatcher and Walden shared many similarities and having both served in Parliament concurrently, they developed a mutual admiration for each other.
In 1989, Margaret Thatcher’s grip on her party was loosening, particularly after Chancellor Nigel Lawson resigned over disagreements regarding her economics advisor, Sir Alan Walters. Just three days prior to Thatcher’s scheduled interview with broadcaster Brian Walden, which went disastrously, exposing the cracks in her government.
During the tense exchange, Walden repeatedly pressed Thatcher about Lawson’s departure, leading to her insistence that she had no understanding of his reasons for leaving. When challenged by Walden with the confrontation: “Do you deny that Nigel would have stayed if you had sacked Professor Alan Walters?” Thatcher responded evasively, “I don’t know. I did everything possible to stop him.”
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The infamous interview between Brian Walden and Margaret Thatcher (Image: PA)
Describing the situation as a “terrible admission”, Thatcher counter-attacked, weary from the grilling: “I’m not going on with this.”
The interview highlighted a significant rift within her leadership, when he put to her that one of her backbenchers had called her “slightly off her trolley, authoritarian, domineering, refusing to listen to anybody else”.
He asked: “Why cannot you publicly project what you have just told me is your private character?” To which Thatcher retorted sharply: “Brian, if anyone’s coming over as domineering in this interview, it’s you.”
Following their arduous encounter, Thatcher and Walden never spoke again, yet her position as leader continued to be under fire.
In November 1990, Michael Heseltine challenged her once more, leading to her eventual resignation. Meanwhile, Walden continued his journalism career with a new ITV programme named Walden.
Brian and Maggie airs on Channel 4 from 9pm on January 29