Another thing I watched as it was on the Guardian's top 50 shows of 2021 was this documentary about the arrival and ascension of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown on the British political scene.
The 80's were a crushing time for a Labour Party. Viewed as militant trade unionists, they were considered unelectable. Two bright young stars of the party, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair take central roles and eventually the leadership. Brown appeals to the legacy supporters, with his pragmatic but progressive Economic policies. Blair is much more of a career politician, but one whose charisma drives people to follow him. Together they form the basis of New Labour who win the 1997 General Election in a landslide. The partnership though is rooted in the agreement that Tony will eventually step aside, and let Gordon Brown take over Prime Minister and, over the years, the differences between the men, their specific politics and the facets they control will drive a wedge between them.
It's hard to distance the subject of the documentary from judgement of the actual documentary itself, particularly when it's a political subject. The BBC gets accused of left wing bias about as often as they get accused of pandering to the right and similarly here, I'm not sure if the attempt is the lionise a polarising political figure, or to make them look silly as, though Blair especially gets a lot of time to talk about his thought process, the camera then holds on him in silence for just a beat too long, as if to say "I don't think he really believes that".
They do manage to get interviews with many of the major political figures involved in this story and each of the sub stories that make up this larger narrative are covered in a way that makes it easy to follow. It does, perhaps, downplay the success of John Smith - now sadly a forgotten figure - prior to his passing and I'm sure that there are other omissions and downplays that could be argued.
You'll never receive a consensus about this period, but as an engaging and often melancholy look back, this documentary series worked for me.
