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Deal, The

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The relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is the subject of much debate in the national press, Channel 4 shows the film The Deal, directed by Stephen Frears, in which Blair and Brown are portrayed in a television drama for the first time.

The Deal marks Stephen Frears’ (Dirty Pretty Things, High Fidelity, Dangerous Liaisons) first film for television since 1993’s The Snapper. The Deal probes the enduring, complex and often tense relationship between the two men - an affiliation which stands at the heart of the Labour party and which forms one of the most influential and significant political relationships of recent years.

Since 1997, British domestic and foreign politics have been determined almost exclusively by these two men.  It is been an unprecedented partnership. Cabinet ministers speak in awed terms of a marriage. Total power-share. Of an unspoken understanding and respect. Gordon runs everything past Tony. Tony greenlights nothing without Gordon's blessing. So why the legendary resentment? Why the enduring rivalry? Why do we read on a daily basis of the burning animosity between them, which explodes behind closed doors? And why now? Why has this tension escalated so recently, six and a half years after reaching power?

The answer goes back to the days following 12th May 1994, when the Labour leader John Smith died and heir apparent Gordon Brown was beaten into second place by his 'protegee' Tony Blair. The repercussions of what happened then, and the enduring legacy of good and ill that stems from it, are the substance of The Deal. David Morrissey (State of Play, Captain Corelli's Mandolin) takes the role of Brown, while Michael Sheen (Bright Young Things, Four Feathers, Heartlands) plays Blair. Written by Peter Morgan (Henry VIII, The Jury, Metropolis), the drama charts the rise of the two men from 1983, when they shared a tiny windowless office on first entering the House of Commons, to their infamous dinner at Granita in 1994 when Brown buried his lifelong ambition to lead the Labour Party in favour of his close friend Blair.

The Deal explores the thorny relationship between principles and power as well as providing an intimate portrait of the friendship between two men who embodied the contradictions inherent in the modern Labour Party. By uniting they were to make it electable for the first time in a generation, only to face one further reality: only one of them could lead it.



At a time when the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is the subject of much debate in the national press, Channel 4 shows the film The Deal, directed by Stephen Frears, in which Blair and Brown are portrayed in a television drama for the first time. The Deal marks Stephen Frears’ (Dirty Pretty Things, High Fidelity, Dangerous Liaisons) first film for television since 1993’s The Snapper. The Deal probes the enduring, complex and often tense relationship between the two men - an affiliation which stands at the heart of the Labour party and which forms one of the most influential and significant political relationships of recent years. Since 1997, British domestic and foreign politics have been determined almost exclusively by these two men. It is been an unprecedented partnership. Cabinet ministers speak in awed terms of a marriage. Total power-share. Of an unspoken understanding and respect. Gordon runs everything past Tony. Tony greenlights nothing without Gordon's blessing. So why the legendary resentment? Why the enduring rivalry? Why do we read on a daily basis of the burning animosity between them, which explodes behind closed doors? And why now? Why has this tension escalated so recently, six and a half years after reaching power? The answer goes back to the days following 12th May 1994, when the Labour leader John Smith died and heir apparent Gordon Brown was beaten into second place by his 'protegee' Tony Blair. The repercussions of what happened then, and the enduring legacy of good and ill that stems from it, are the substance of The Deal. David Morrissey (State of Play, Captain Corelli's Mandolin) takes the role of Brown, while Michael Sheen (Bright Young Things, Four Feathers, Heartlands) plays Blair. Written by Peter Morgan (Henry VIII, The Jury, Metropolis), the drama charts the rise of the two men from 1983, when they shared a tiny windowless office on first entering the House of Commons, to their infamous dinner at Granita in 1994 when Brown buried his lifelong ambition to lead the Labour Party in favour of his close friend Blair. The Deal explores the thorny relationship between principles and power as well as providing an intimate portrait of the friendship between two men who embodied the contradictions inherent in the modern Labour Party. By uniting they were to make it electable for the first time in a generation, only to face one further reality: only one of them could lead it.

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