If we are to encourage or admonish those in power, it is important we have some idea what they are up to. Light is shone by the press corps and by the transmission of proceedings from parliament itself. But every so often, we get a glimpse behind the curtain.
More often than not, that is provided by the filmmaker Michael Cockerell. He filmed his first intimate political portrait, of Willie Whitelaw, in 1989, and in the years since he has produced agenda-setting work adding colour and texture to figures such as Edward Heath, Kenneth Clarke, Barbara Castle, Michael Howard, Boris Johnson, Tony Blair and Alan Clark. His subjects are accustomed to cameras and the limelight,, yet inevitably they surrender an unscripted disclosure, an unguarded moment: each succumbs to Cockerell’s mix of guile and charm. In his latest project, to be screened next week, he profiles the House of Commons itself.
Reports suggest that Tory MPs, anxious about their depiction and the precedent of such close attention, sought to sabotage it. With typical deftness, Cockerell revealed their plot in order to bring his film to even wider attention. A tough, smart cookie: very much a public good.
