Steve Coogan has revealed that he is soon set to star in a new TV drama about Margaret Thatcher, in which he will play Brian Walden, a former Labour MP who became ITV's chief political interviewer.
Advertisement
According to Coogan, Thatcher will be played by Succession star Harriet Walter, while details of release date and which channel or streaming service it will air on are currently unknown.
Speaking with British Comedy Guide, Coogan said of the project: "Brian Walden was the arch, in-depth interviewer in the old days when they had long-form interviews where you'd interviews a politician for 50 minutes; doesn't happen anymore.
"He was a little later than [David] Frost but he was in the same mould.
"He was ITV's star interviewer, interrogator. And anyway, I'm doing a drama with Harriet Walter as Margaret Thatcher. I start shooting that soon."
Harriet Walter. Karwai Tang/WireImage
He continued: "Margaret Thatcher and Brian Walden had a kind of strange friendship that was sorely tested towards the end of her tenure, so it's a fascinating story... what's interesting about Margaret Thatcher - and I was not a fan, I have to say.
"But the interesting thing about her is that she was state educated, and most politicians, certainly most Conservative politicians, tended to be privately educated.
"[She and Walden] both got scholarships to Oxford, so he felt a kind of kinship, they felt like outsiders as far as being outside the establishment.
"So that bonded them, but their politics were slightly different. He moved towards hers, becoming disillusioned with Labour, though he was always on the side of the ordinary working man."
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
