Brian and Maggie: who plays who in the new Margaret Thatcher drama?

Politics is an unforgiving game – one slip of the tongue and your career could be over.

And in 1989, it was for Margaret Thatcher. On October 29, she sat down for an interview with famous broadcasting heavyweight Brian Walden. She was under pressure: her chancellor had resigned three days previously, and this was supposed to be a chance for her to defend herself.

Instead, the resulting grilling brought about the end of Thatcher’s government – and ruined the long-term friendship between herself and Walden. Now a Channel 4 drama is retelling the story: here is who’s who in the cast.

Steve Coogan as Brian Walden

(Channel 4)

Brian Walden was a British journalist and broadcaster – as well as a former politician. He spent a decade as a Labour MP, before pivoting to ITV. He won multiple awards for his work on-screen, and is today known as one of the best-ever political interviewers in British broadcasting. Unsurprisingly, he was best known for his interviews of politicians – and was reportedly Margaret Thatcher’s favourite interviewer.

Coogan, who plays him, is a British actor. He began his career on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, but is best known for his inept TV broadcasting character Alan Partridge, who has featured in several TV series and a film. Coogan’s also appeared in tens of films, including Night at the Museum, Tropic Thunder and 2013 film Philomena, which won him several Academy Award and BAFTA nods.

Talking about the show, he sees it as a “political love story of sorts between a disillusioned Labour politician and Margaret Thatcher, who was quite a radical politician at the time. The two of them were outsiders and that’s what attracted them to each other, above and beyond their political views”.

Harriet Walter as Margaret Thatcher

(Channel 4)

The Iron Lady. Thatcher was the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975, and the Prime Minister from 1979. From then until 1990, when she resigned, she changed the shape of the entire country, ushering in an age of growth and capitalism. But by 1989, she was flagging in the polls, and turned to her old friend Brian Walden for a sympathetic TV interview.

Walter is a British actor. Born in 1950, she started her work on-stage with performances of Twelfth Night and Three Sisters for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then, she’s appeared in films like Sense and Sensibility (the 1995 version), 2007’s Atonement, Star Wars: The Forece Awakens and Elton John biopic Rocketman.

To prepare for the role, Walter watched YouTube videos, as well as the many previous performances of Thatcher on film. “I’d seen Meryl Streep in ‘The Iron Lady’ and Gillian Anderson in ‘The Crown’. My favourite of all, if nobody minds me saying this, is Fenella Woolgar who plays Margaret Thatcher in The Reckoning.” Opposite none other than Steve Coogan.

Paul Clayton as Bernard Ingham

(Channel 4)

Ingham was Margaret Thatcher’s chief press secretary during her time as Prime Minister.

Paul Clayton is best known for playing Ian Chapman in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, but he’s also appeared in Coronation Street (as Sam Foster), the BBC Three sitcom Him & Her (where he plays Graham) and Hollyoaks – where he played murdered Superintendent Marlow.

Ross Armstrong as John Wakefield

(Channel 4)

Wakefield was a friend of Walden’s, who worked with him at ITV. Armstrong, who plays him, is best known for his roles in 2014 film Turn On, the ITV series Mr Selfridge and 2011 film The Decoy Bride.

Tom Mothersdale as David Cox

(Channel 4)

Cox worked at London Weekend Television, the ITV predecessor which hosted the Thatcher/ Walden interview. Mothersdale is a British actor who’s best known for his stage work: he’s appeared in plays like The Cherry Orchard at the Young Vic and The Comedy of Errors at the Globe. However, he’s also made some TV appearances: notably in Peaky Blinders’ second season, Netflix series Bodies and Disney+ heist series Culprits.

Emma Sidi as Sue Richardson

Sue is an employee at LTW, and Sidi herself is an actor, comedian and writer. She was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, and has gone on to appear on Taskmaster, as well as in Rose Matafeo’s series Starstruck, Stath Lets Flats and Prince Andrew: The Musical (in which she played Emily Maitlis).

Karan Gill as Vinay Ahmed

Ahmed is a British actor who has appeared in shows including I May Destroy You, Paramount+ comedy The Road Trip and Netflix series The Decameron, as Panfilo.

Simon Paisley Day as Ian Gow

Ian Gow was a British politician, who was the MP for Eastbourne from 1974 until 1990 – when he was assassinated by an IRA car bomb outside his home in East Sussex.

Day is an actor who has done most of his work on-stage – but has also appeared on-screen in shows like This England (where he played Dominic Cummings), The Crown, and the Titanic mini-series, in which he played Scottish peer Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon.

Paul Higgins as Geoffrey Howe

A Welsh politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1989 to 1990. His resignation in 1990 was the first domino in the chain that eventually led to Thatcher’s resignation.

Higgins, who plays him, is a Scottish actor. He initially trained to be a priest, before giving it up at 17 when he started dating – and has since gone onto appear in shows like The Thick Of It, Utopia and Line of Duty.

Doug Berry as Michael Heseltine

A Conservative politician, whose eventual challenge to Thatcher’s leadership led to her resignation. Berry has appeared in shows like The Crown (where he played an aide to Margaret Thatcher, oddly enough) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Brian and Maggie will air on Channel 4 on January 29 at 9pm