Original subtitles

Tell the people. Tell them on television.

Questions in the public mind answered by people in the public eye.

Good evening.

A few minutes ago, the Prime Minister

the Right Honorable Harold Macmillan, came to Television House

and he's here now in the ITN studio.

But why should the public, on this issue

as regards the future of the Royal Navy

believe you, a transient, uh...

here today, and if I may say so, gone-tomorrow politician

rather than a senior officer of many years' service?

I'm sorry, I'm fed up with this interview.

It's ridiculous, really.

Well, thank you, Mr. Nott.

It's quite straight, yes or no...

Give me a straight question and I'll give you an answer.

It may be the question, but it's not the way I choose to answer it.

The Prime Minister has just arrived

in the last few seconds.

Morning, Prime Minister. Would you come on

Good Morning Britain, Prime Minister?

Oh, for f**k's sake.

Morning-morning, Brian. How are we?

Fine, thank you, Pam. Good morning.

Sleepless night, was it? Better use my thick brush, eh?

I've always quite liked her.

Well, how sort of single-minded she is anyway.

I can't remember.

Have you interviewed her before?

Oh, yes. Many times over the years.

Brian.

She'll have seen this too, of course.

She'll come out fighting now.

Don't you think?

Brian.

What have you decided? The, uh... strategy.

What are you going to do?

Look, bad timing, that's all.

It's a full 45 minutes, remember?

He's your favorite for a reason, and he's a friend.

Be a walk in the park.

Just this way, please, Prime Minister.

Margaret, how are you?

Well, Brian. Always well.

Now, I expect you'll be starting off with you-know-who, and you-know-what.

Hello. Good morning.

But I do hope we can then move on to something of more substance.

Like we usually do.

He seems, uh... dare I say it, nervous.

And he's never nervous. It's making me nervous.

Can you stop saying nervous?

Five, four, three, two...

Good afternoon.

Nigel Lawson's shock resignation

has plunged the Prime Minister into the most serious

political crisis of her career.

Prime Minister.

Many people, including many of your supporters

blame you for the resignation.

Now, how you respond to these claims

may be of crucial significance for you personally

and for your government.

And so I put it to you

are you to blame?

I put this to our Chancellor.

There's no reason he has to answer it.

I'm not that important.

But I'm afraid I cannot vote with my own government on this order.

- I regret it, but I cannot do so. - Hear, hear...

These are old solutions...

for an increasingly tired country

desperate to feel new and young again.

Many of my honorable friends whose conscience and experience

are not less than mine and in many cases are greater

will vote for the government.

Uh, I respect their decision as they will respect mine.

Could he be our man?

My judgment is that we are at the end of our tether.

Hear, hear.

Member for Dover.

My honorable friend makes some exceptional points.

and I believe has captured the despair of this nation.

Hear, hear.

Where are the answers in this government's proposals

to the challenges we face? Nowhere.

Inflation? Nowhere.

Stagnation? Nowhere.

Unemployment? Nowhere.

Hear, hear.

- Brian Walden for David Cox. - Oh, yes. Ninth floor.

Well, what can I say? London Weekend Television.

Three of the most glamorous things there are.

But, uh, if we do, uh...

collectively decide to give this a go

I'd have to stand down.

Uh... as an MP with a regular spot on television, that would be...

- I mean, wouldn't that be-- - Unethical? Yes.

And how would that, you know, be giving that all up?

Well... it's no secret.

I'm no fan of the direction the Labour Party is heading.

They're completely at the mercy of the unions, all these...

North London Marxist types.

Not the broader tradition I came from.

Yeah. In fact, to be honest...

I don't think I should ever have been an MP at all.

Working-class lad at Oxford. I was flattered into it.

You realize pretty quickly

just how little impact as an individual you can have.

Weekend World is a unique show at LWT.

They pretty much leave us alone to do what we do.

And uh, what is it you think you do, my old son?

A long-form forensic interview to help facilitate mass comprehension.

Mass comprehension? My, oh my.

In other words, helping folk understand what the hell is going on?

When we came on-air years ago

we were and still are the only political program

to put a single interviewee through their paces for an entire show.

And we do that on the same channel

and in between repeats of Upstairs, Downstairs

and wrestlers knocking ten bells of shit out of one another

for Weekend Sport.

Because we believe the political interview ought to play a part

in a popular audience's understanding of the world they live in.

Very good. Nicely pitched.

And as regards you and... current affairs.

No affairs currently.

I'm very faithful to my wife at present.

Why? What have you heard?

This is, uh, your third wife.

But you know...

some gobby bloke with a common-as-muck Midlands accent?

When you think of the news, how it sounds doesn't sound like me.

No. Tsk. But...

you... sound like our audience.

Well, I suppose when you think about it.

Shakespeare, the great vendor of the English language.

He was a Brummie, wasn't he?

In fact, he probably said those lines just like this.

Hmm. What? "Romeo, Romeo."

"Wherefore art thou, Romeo?"

I'll see you round, gentlemen.

So, Brian, this is, uh, the rest of the production team.

Hello. Hello.

You look young. What's your story?

Oh, yeah.

I did a stint at BBC Birmingham, actually. Your neck of the...

They have this South Asian programing unit there now.

Wonderful. Don't tell me you're a West Bromwich Albion fan.

No, wait. Hold the line. Uh...

Seventh this year in the First Division.

Before that...

third in the second. And then sixth and then eighth.

Photographic memory. Test on me anything, Sue.

Anything. What's... what's your passion?

Barry Manilow and meetings starting on time.

You're skeptical, John.

Hmm. It's my job to be skeptical of politicians.

And here we are, inviting one into our team.

Well, they told us to shake things up.

He was thought of as a future party leader once.

You don't think it'll be lightweight?

Politicians always, at some level, just want to be liked.

If I've learned one thing, is that a show like this...

you're only ever one ratings dip, one whiff of an audience

losing interest before...

well...

He's got something. We take the risk.

Your first guest should be someone quite, uh...

loud, drawing some press. A political titan.

Maybe Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey, Airey Neave, even Ted Heath.

Already done him. Done him twice.

Won't do it, and...

Oh my Christ, do you want people to fall asleep?

I have a suggestion, actually.

- That's a blank piece of paper. - It is.

I was hoping for a dramatic reveal. Stand corrected.

Right. Here we go.

Margaret Thatcher?

Yes. Interview the leader of the opposition

while she's still... relatively green.

Her other interviews haven't been hugely illuminating.

To me, she trots out other people's philosophies.

Keith Joseph, monetarism, libertarianism.

But I'm not sure there's much going on there apart from her...

Uh, being...

Oh, right. The only thing going for her

- is that she's a woman. - No, no, I...

Although that is interesting

I think people are missing something.

Uh, she was pretty ruthless in deposing her predecessor.

So why? What does she want?

What is this change she's hoping to bring?

Isn't that worth finding out?

I... I think there's a bigger agenda.

I think that's... I don't think

that's the right territory to go down.

All thoughts are welcome.

- Your policies... - Hmm.

Then we're not just saying she's in favor of...

Well, either way, we can capitalize off

the key questions it gets on.

Margaret Thatcher.

Uh, since you became leader of your party...

- Yeah. - You have broken the tradition

insofar as you no longer seek the conciliatory consensus

that your predecessors sought.

In other words, you are on course...

Brian.

Or should that be Mr. Walden? Forgive me.

Mrs. Thatcher.

I'd heard rumors that you were thinking of crossing the floor to us

once upon a time.

But now you've gone further. You've crossed the river...

...instead.

Yes. Well, it's all... it's all very new.

Well, it still is to me too, so...

you are new and I am new.

Excuse me, Mr. Walden and Mrs. Thatcher.

Let's come this way, please.

Mr. Walden.

- Where do you want me? - Mrs. Thatcher, just across there.

Okay, we're going for tight on camera one, please.

On one.

Yeah, a tiny bit tighter. Yeah. That's good, that's good.

Camera three, wide as well.

Okay. Brian, can you hear me?

God, that's loud! Will you be doing that the whole time?

Sir, you'll be all the way over there?

Oh, yes. No, um...

It's just a sort of a funky idea that they're trying out for the opening.

On camera, it'll look as if we're facing each other

but in different aspects.

So if you face and I face, then...

- You see, on the monitor? - Oh, yes.

Recording beginning in five, four, three, two, one.

Roll credits.

Hello and good morning.

One of the most urgent questions to which everyone wants an answer is

if we vote Margaret Thatcher into Number Ten at the next election

will we be voting for a disastrous and futile confrontation

between the government and the unions?

Today, on Weekend World, we will try and answer that question.

First, though, the news headlines with Gordon Honeycombe.

There's more conjecture about Middle East peace moves

after the unexpected return to Israel last night from Paris

of the Israeli Foreign Secretary, Mr. Dayan

and the Egyptian foreign minister, Mr. Fahmy has left Cairo for France.

He's also on his way to America

with Egyptian proposals for a Middle East settlement.

More than 40 firebombs...

All right. Main interview. Good luck. Brian.

In speeches up and down the country

Mrs. Thatcher has often startled her audiences.

Instead of the reassurance we've come to expect from Conservative leaders

Mrs. Thatcher conveyed a sense of imminent danger.

There's a reason Mrs. Thatcher sounds more militant

than other postwar leaders.

They've avoided identifying the party too closely

with any particular doctrine because they've been afraid

that ideology costs votes.

Today, we're not going to consider whether those

policies are in themselves good or bad for Britain

but instead try to work out whether she would overcome

the opposition she's bound to run into.

So we've indulged in a little crystal-ball gazing

with our own scenario of what could happen

if she got into Number Ten.

Margaret Thatcher comes to power

after a close-run general election.

Immediately, Mrs. Thatcher cuts taxes

and announces large reductions in public spending.

A national ballot of miners comes out overwhelmingly

in favor of strike action.

So here we are. Two Midlanders, east and west.

Oh, yes.

And you went to Oxford, too.

- On a scholarship. - Me too.

Wouldn't have been able to go otherwise.

No, no. Of course.

Although it did come with an awful lot of hard work, of course.

Oh, yes, that was drilled into me.

- Hard work, just rewards. - Five, four, three, two...

So what would Mrs. Thatcher do if it came to the crunch?

Thank you for joining us, Mrs. Thatcher.

Do you see yourself as we see you

as a figure who wants to substantially change

a lot of things in our society, who wants to...

roll back to a more individualistic sort of society?

I think government has got into far too many areas

and government really has tried

to stop a good deal of individual liberty.

Now I want to roll back those areas of decision

both from people and businesses.

That's not government's job.

- Well... - One moment.

I want to be absolutely clear.

You see, the whole difference between our society

and that of the United States and Germany

is that they've grown because they've got incentives.

The incentives we haven't had.

And I'm going to say, people

will respond to those incentives

and a socialist government cannot give those incentives

because all of its philosophy, all of its ideas...

Brian, do you challenge her? She's an ideologue, a radical!

But governments spend better when leaving the money with people.

And that is why they're coming to us and not to them.

Uh... well, it's a vision

but governments aren't conducted on visions.

Oh, no... no. It's a reality.

I enjoyed that.

I don't know why some people fear this whole, you know, the medium.

I see these conversations as opportunities.

Well, then we should do it again sometime.

Uh, I think you're that way, we're this.

Right, well...

- goodbye, then. - Goodbye.

Bye.

Uh-oh. David's not saying anything. Come, dear leader.

Oh, great Strategos.

- What mighty thoughts? - You went too easy on her.

You gave her all that space to postulate.

Don't our audience want to hear her postulate?

The function of a political interview

- isn't to provide a platform... - So they can--

- ... for the politicians. - So they make a judgment

- about her. - It's to break apart their platform.

Interesting one, isn't he, Bernard?

Labour man, of course, but...

Well, with his background like mine...

you take the Labour Party like your mother's milk.

One of those aspirational working classes we have to win over.

She was good. Answers the question.

Full of substance... full to bursting.

I've practically got indigestion.

Well, I'm sorry, but I thought it was a disaster.

Well, he's a journalist at the end of the day.

Out for himself. They all are.

Yes, these people must always be kept at arm's length.

So we should be seeing Mrs. Thatcher next

among jubilant party workers.

Mrs. Thatcher comes out dressed in the most brilliant blue.

Mrs. Thatcher, are you cautiously optimistic?

We're reserving judgment

but yes, optimistic based on the polls.

Will it be a landslide, Mrs. Thatcher?

Too early to tell...

Well, if ever anyone looked like a winner

Mrs. Thatcher looks like a winner this evening

as she goes off to Finchley.

Good luck, Maggie!

She must know now that she is safely home and dry.

Good luck, Maggie!

It's never happened before.

There's never been a woman Prime Minister of Britain

or of any other Western country.

That's what we're going to see this afternoon

and it'll be symbolized on the steps of Number Ten.

And that's what this crowd here is waiting for too.

- Oh, Brian. - Prime Minister.

Thank you for coming to see us here.

There's so many of you to get through, I just needed to...

Not at all. Happy to be one of the chosen.

Um, cutaway first?

Uh, yes, a quick intro and...

Presumably a two-shot before moving to the...

Yes. Right.

Bernard, should that go? That ornament thing.

It looks as if it's sticking out of my head.

Don't want people to think I've been impaled.

Avoid saying this... and this.

Yes.

Right.

Ready.

Britain enters the '80s with the most radical leadership in a generation.

Margaret Thatcher insists economic prosperity must return to Britain

and has made it clear she intends to do whatever is necessary

to make her plan work.

Prime Minister, uh, it won't surprise you

I don't suppose it surprises anybody, that your political opponents think

your economic strategy will fail.

Well, theirs failed.

- And so we have to do-- - Well, we don't have time

- to go into that now. - something very different.

No, wait a minute. It's part of what you might call

the Thatcher experiment.

Well, what interests me more is that they think

even if against their expectations, you were to succeed economically

you would still have created a society which is more unequal

riddled with avoidable injustices.

Now, is the price of our economic recovery and prosperity

greater inequality in our country?

Indeed, yes.

One of the problems, of course, there are differentials

for extra effort, extra skill.

You will get a more thriving society when people can rise

to the limit of their talents.

For example, I don't expect to be paid as much as you are, Mr. Walden.

Well, um...

but it... it does mean more inequality, does it not?

It does mean more. Indeed, yes.

She actually answers the bloody question.

I find that refreshing.

Yes, but you risk coming across to the whole world

as though you're becoming most enamored.

It's not enamored.

It... Look, she...

has a mission.

Agree with it or disagree with it, she wants to get something done.

And I want to understand it.

Look, I get it. It... it's just...

it's your style, and it's a valid one, opening them up.

I just wish with her you'd be a bit harder because she is hard.

Listen, Brian. Look, I'm sorry, but at some point

you're gonna have to let go of the politician that wants to be liked

and embrace the journalist who can prosecute.

Those red lines between the two, they exist for a reason.

Well, then help me.

You say you want to educate the masses.

Start with me, Coxy.

I can learn anything.

Teach me the ways of the great political interviewer

and I'll learn them. Okay?

So we start with a mind map.

The plan, a map of potential answers to each question

that we can war-game so that you can prepare in advance where you go next.

Which I can memorize.

Trust me. Preparation, I can do. Preparation, I love.

"Minister, are you going to perform a U-turn on your manifesto pledge?"

If he says yes, move to 4-C. No, to 8-B.

No, I will not be U-turning.

Well then. Are you aware of the cost of continuing down this road

and what it's going to be?

Pointy heads. Current affairs wonks.

I'd stay clear.

If they say yes, they will increase taxes.

Turn right to this question.

If they say no, they will not turn left to a different question.

Mr. Nott, if you could not in fact bring public borrowing

under control by any other means

then you would have to increase taxes in order to do so.

Most certainly. Most certainly.

Uh, what we are committed...

For the Labour Party. I have a very deep...

umbilical tie.

It would be as painful for me to break away from it

as it would be to break away from a family.

But you might. And it's the might that interests me.

Geoffrey.

Are you ready for tomorrow's budget, Chancellor?

Of course, Margaret.

And Nigel.

- Nice and smart. - Hmm.

Congrats. Nigel. Energy on the way up.

Cheers. Yes, lots to do.

Exactly. Energy, that's what we need.

Come and sit down.

I want you right here, Geoffrey, on my right as chancellor.

Then, Nigel.

Uh, are you being any use?

- Doing my-- - Do something.

Um, Michael... you're a bit tall.

Would you please stand in the back row?

Anyone else who's very tall?

Ah, just one moment.

Forgive me, Margaret, I...

thought I'd just run through these... projections that are coming in.

Who the devil's that?

Oh, isn't it her new economic adviser, um...

- Adam, Alan... - Alan Walters.

Mad professor.

Has the PM's ear, but it won't last.

Best to avoid him at all costs.

Just bear with us.

Right. Are we all ready...

to face the lens of history?

Yes. Over to you.

Everyone look at me, please.

Pennies don't come from heaven, Brian.

They have to be earned here on earth.

And there are plenty out there to be earned.

If we do all the right things, you know...

keep public spending under control, keep public borrowing down...

then the boat will come in.

Well, um, that answer, um...

provokes me to ask you a question.

I'd hoped that wasn't being provocative.

No, no, I don't mean in that sense. I meant that it was stimulative.

And it stimulates me to ask you a question.

When you talk about your values

uh, those values have a resonance in our past.

What I would call Victorian values. Now, is that correct?

Yes, exactly. Very much so.

Those were the values when our country became great.

Yes, Victorian values. I'm quite pleased with that.

I know, but you heard her. She's going to start using that now.

A line you fed her.

Isn't this exactly the kind of thing David--

Yes, but we're helping define the news for our audience

not just report it, all right?

Look, I've got to file my column.

- Okay, I'll head back inside. - Okay.

Um, well done tonight. Chin-chin. Bravo. See you tomorrow.

You don't fancy a drink, do you?

Uh... Oh.

Well, um... Actually, I...

I probably best not get a slapped wrist and...

uh, but um, cheers anyway.

No, I was never a socialist.

Come on, admit it.

No, uh... honestly.

Honestly, this is the thing that the people on the left...

Well, the further left have never understood

about actual working people. We don't want handouts.

My dad didn't. We value hard work.

I've always been more of a meritocrat.

Yes, a meritocracy. Exactly.

And you and I are very good examples of that.

We've got to the very top of our profession

against all the odds.

Look at us.

To us!

Um, just to say.

Uh, we can keep this between...

Oh, full confidentiality.

Like a doctor or a priest.

Yeah.

I remember something you said in the Commons, um...

Of course I didn't know you from Adam back then, but I...

I made a mental note of it.

Oh, really? What was it that I said?

You were talking about... You used this phrase, um...

"the furtherance of remarkable people."

And uh, I like that.

The aspiration of it. Didn't matter where you were from, man or woman.

Yes, exactly.

You see, there are so many, well, men...

Denis and I have to tolerate them. We have to entertain them here.

And they didn't earn their place.

They just knew someone who knew someone.

And they bluff and they blag their way through

and they have unlimited chances!

But me...

if I don't spend hours and hours preparing every detail...

Me too. I'm exactly the same.

- Exactly the same. - Yeah.

You see, you never do shake it off, do you?

That feeling one has of being...

an outsider.

I think that's why I, um...

I've always been nervous... uh, of...

I don't know, the mob.

Yeah... The unions, even.

My father was a glassblower and very hard working.

Frequently out of work because of the closed shop.

They wouldn't accept him, wouldn't let him in.

Uh, I never knew why.

And your mother?

She passed away when I was, uh, 12.

Oh. I'm sorry.

She was the stronger one. Uh...

Maybe too strong, some thought.

Uh, she was a bookbinder.

My God, the uh... the luck of that.

That's the only reason there were books in the house.

And she never read them, of course.

But for me...

being on my own a lot, uh...

never really being into having friends...

um, I was very happy on my own.

Book in my lap, enjoying brave new worlds.

Well, it seems to me you made your own luck, Brian.

I'm very aware, painfully aware...

that one mistake and they will have me out...

one day.

Doesn't matter what I do.

Someone will come for me.

I reckon there's no one you won't be able to see off, Margaret.

This country needs Margaret Thatcher.

Someone unafraid to offer a vision.

What can I say? She tickles me.

And I think I understand her.

In years to come, great novels will be written about her.

We want Maggie! We want Maggie!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Young Conservatives Conference

Mr. Kenny Everett!

Let's bomb Russia!

Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away!

Put your hands together for Jimmy Tarbuck and Steve Davis.

We want Maggie! We want Maggie!

We want Maggie! We want Maggie!

Ronnie, you're here.

All hail the speechwriter. Did you see the rally at Wembley?

- I did. - Oh, they were going wild.

Almost hysterical, some of them.

- Oh. - Is hysteria a thing to be

courted and celebrated?

All feels a bit American.

Ronnie, it's only that it proves what a draw she is amongst the young.

You wanted me to take another run at the text for Wednesday?

Yes.

It's the last party broadcast before the election day.

And I think... we think

following on from what we've just seen...

- right, Ian? - Yes. Yeah.

Cap... capturing, harnessing the mood.

You know, the energy. It's real, it's there, so...

Well, I... I was going for mood.

A sort of thoughtful mood piece.

No! That's what we want changed.

Hammer home our achievements. Bang... bang!

And what we've still got left to do. Boom... boom!

The people, they're ready now for some confidence, some ambition

to go further in the fight.

That's what the campaign's been. Bangs and booms.

I thought now...

a little night music.

A little night music?

Ronald, we want them on their feet like they were today!

"Maggie! Maggie!"

Margaret, must everything always be a fight?

Can't it sometimes be... peace and quiet?

Ron's gone wobbly. We'll need another writer.

- What? - Sorry, Ron.

Maybe someone from Saatchis?

No, not an ad man.

We want poetry.

This is about instinct.

Somebody knows what we are and what we need to say, in his gut.

What about Brian?

Brian?

Is that proper?

And he's not a speechwriter. He's a journalist.

And a good one.

Ronnie's a playwright, and a good one.

Thank you, good night.

Good night. Ronnie.

It's just...

I don't know what the protocol...

- and it's nearly midnight. - Call him. Call Brian.

Hello.

Brian, forgive the hour, it's Ian Gow.

You're not around, are you?

Um...

Around for, uh...

for what? And when?

We wanted to...

Well, now, actually.

Final party political broadcast

going out the night before polling day.

And Margaret just wondered about getting your take on it.

She'd just like your brain on it.

Brain of Brian. Brian's brain.

Maybe I should sleep on it.

Or check with some of the... You know, it's okay to...

It's only that we need to get you into a cab, sort of... now-ish.

And maybe best just kept between ourselves.

Less complicated. For you, I mean.

- Brian. - Ah.

Honestly, I can't thank you enough.

Have some coffee.

Thank you. Yes.

Well, I... I saw the clips. Uh, Wembley.

- Jimmy Tarbuck, Kenny Everett. - Mm-hmm.

Even Steve Davis looked excited.

- For Steve Davis. - He stinks of booze.

- He's been drinking. - Oh, for heaven's sake, you.

Go and knit a quilt or something.

Here, coffee.

Black as the night.

Yes, the rally rather took us by surprise.

Hence why we want to cross the finishing line

a bit more triumphantly, with a bit more punch.

Yes, um...

It's, it's a little... tricky. Uh...

unwritten rules of journalism, you know. Church and state?

No, of course.

Oh, completely. This doesn't have to affect that.

Brian, you're a professional, and I'm a professional.

Absolutely.

You know, there's been some polling done today.

Polling all the time, of course...

but on this policy or that message, but this was specifically on me.

Well, let me guess. The same lazy stereotypes...

"battle ax" sort of stuff.

Strong? Yes.

Capable, just not likable...

apparently.

Well, I mean, that's... That's your public persona.

Uh, in private...

I mean, in private, uh... I... I like you.

Thank you, Brian.

And... and I wasn't fishing.

No, it's just that I know one has to be...

uh...

You see, when I first came into this, everyone before me had been so wet.

Wet, and nothing got done.

And I refuse to be that.

No, the moment you stop driving hard, the whole thing comes off the road.

It's just...

oh, I don't know. Maybe I should have shown some...

I don't know, humility or... softness?

No, this country is so bloody lily-livered.

You mustn't bend, Margaret. There's too much to do.

I wouldn't give them an inch. I mean it.

At crucial moments like this, never compromise, never flinch.

And you can forget your naysayers.

You have plenty of people who...

believe in you.

And I do like fun. You know, I...

I can... I can tell a joke.

I heard one only the other day. What was it?

Um, there's this man in a hospital, and...

No... no. He goes into a bar

and he's still wearing his gown, and he...

No, no. Well, I'll... I'll remember it.

But thank you, Brian, for your faith.

You were one of the first people to take me seriously

when everyone else dismissed me out of hand.

I'll always be grateful for that.

So shall we get on?

For freedom!

Freedom is the birthright of every citizen.

To preserve and defend that freedom.

To defend it from within and from without.

Amen.

In Britain today, there is no room

for outdated distinctions of class or creed.

It doesn't matter who you are or who your father is

or where you came from.

Hello.

So there's this man who goes into a pub

from the hospital next door.

And he's still wearing his gown

and he's pulling his IV stand along with him.

You know, all that business.

And the landlord looks a bit worried.

He says, "Can I help you?"

And our chap says, "Yes, please.

I'd like two pints of lager

two Guinness, four gin and tonics

and three shots of tequila."

And it's a free world.

So the landlord, you know, he's an entrepreneurial sort.

He gives the man his drinks.

And then the man downs them one by one

ending up with the shots of tequila.

And he turns to the landlord and he says

"Do you know, I really shouldn't have drunk all that with what I've got."

And the landlord says, "Why, what have you got?"

And he says, "About £3.50."

And I will honor that pledge I made you in this unrelenting quest

to break down the old barriers

and build a Britain where it doesn't matter

who your father is or where you come from.

- The certainty of liberty! - Remember this moment.

- And the chance of property... - A sense of...

triumph on their faces. Look at it.

They think they're untouchable now.

A landslide.

The Falklands, all of it. I mean...

What need to be held accountable on camera

subjected to scrutiny anymore?

...passionately believe...

Well, yes, they are strong now.

Which means we have to be stronger and harder and tougher

in return, on behalf of our viewers. Okay?

Right?

Right.

Mr. Lawson, Prime Minister has asked you to come upstairs.

Yes. Come in.

He's here.

Assuming he accepts

I'll get it out in the first editions.

All hunky dory. Still riding high on a wave.

Hunky dory?

What's worrying you?

Have you ever...

in the moment, just given a piece of yourself to somebody?

Perhaps more than you meant to. And then after the fact, you...

No... I don't know.

Who?

No, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

Show him in.

- Nigel. - Prime Minister.

- Come on in and sit down. - Thanks.

So...

Geoffrey is taking the foreign brief.

I was rather hoping you would take up his mantle as Chancellor.

I would like that very much. It would be a great honor to accept.

Well, there's no time like the present.

I thought it would be good to... get into a routine of having

little... informal chats a couple of times a week.

Because, you know, the relationship between Prime Minister and Chancellor

needs to be very, very close. Don't you agree?

Without question, Prime Minister.

Margaret.

Margaret.

You've proved yourself to be able to get things done.

And this term, it's time. It's time...

to start selling back to the private sector

everything that came under public ownership after the war.

We must let them get out there and thrive with confidence.

- Yes? - Absolutely.

- Let's get on with it. - Right.

And to that end, Nigel...

Were you thinking of having a haircut?

- Haircut? - Yes. Long and unkempt.

- That's the other lot, isn't it? - Of course. Margaret.

Prime Minister? Switchboard have Brian Walden on the phone.

Uh... yes.

Would you pass that onto Bernard, please, instead?

Margaret, how are you?

Well, Brian. Always well.

Okay, all set.

Four, three, two...

What on earth is going on out there?

Betrayal.