Steve Coogan reveals surprising 'love story' with Margaret Thatcher

Steve Coogan is set to portray Brian Walden, a former Labour MP who struck up an unlikely friendship with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in a new Channel 4 drama this week

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When you think of Steve Coogan, images of Alan Partridge or razor-sharp impersonations might spring to mind. But his latest role as former Labour MP-turned-journalist Brian Walden in Channel 4’s Brian and Maggie is a step away from his usual roles.

Coogan dives into a surprising "political love story" between former Labour MP Brian Walden and Margaret Thatcher, played by Dame Harriet Walter. The drama, penned by Sherwood creator James Graham, airs this Wednesday and Thursday on Channel 4 at 9pm, and explores the unexpected relationship forged between Walden and the Iron Lady during her years as Tory prime minister.

Walden, who died in 2019 aged 88, served as Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, but resigned in 1977 to become a TV interviewer and became known for his tough grilling of politicians. By then he and Thatcher had become close friends.

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However, after an infamous interview he did with Thatcher in 1989 in which his questioning triggered the then PM's demise, the pair reportedly never spoke again. For Coogan, the story was instantly fascinating. “It was this 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,” he explains.

While their politics were worlds apart, they shared a sense of not quite belonging to the establishment. “I think Brian was naturally on the left, from a working-class background, and Margaret Thatcher as well was from the lower middle class, the small tradespeople background,” Coogan notes.

“I feel comfortable being outside the establishment, but I want to succeed in a way that the establishment has to acknowledge, and I think Brian Walden and Margaret Thatcher felt the same.”

The show also sees Coogan reunite with Harriet Walter, who embodies Thatcher as the divisive leader. Walter admits she was initially surprised when offered the role.

“My agent said there is this thing called Brian and Maggie , and it’s about Brian Walden and Margaret Thatcher,” she says. “I decided I don’t look anything like Thatcher. I’m the first brown-eyed, dark-haired person who’s taken on the role, so I won’t go into this role attempting to do a direct impression but to just try and get behind the thinking of this person.”

To achieve this, Walter transformed herself with the help of a skilled team. “We had a brilliant wig department under Vanessa White that created three different blonde wigs - each slightly aged to represent different stages of Margaret’s life. I had contact lenses, blue eyes for when I was younger, blue-grey eyes for when I was older. I had a fake set of teeth made as Thatcher had a slight overbite, so the fake teeth slightly influenced the way I spoke.”

For Coogan, working with Walter was both an honour and a challenge. “Harriet is at the top of her game; she is an acting giant,” he says. The pair had an amusing shared history: “I told her we had worked together before at the Royal Exchange in 1986, and I was a stagehand who flew in lamps onto the stage. However, because it was a revolving stage, which I failed to revolve one night, I left her stranded as an actor just standing there on stage. But she says she doesn’t have any recollection of that! Of course, it’s haunted me for years.”

Walter, for her part, was equally impressed by Coogan. “Working opposite Steve Coogan is surprising because I thought it would be a laugh a minute and we’d all be rolling in the aisles as he does impersonations, but he takes his work very seriously,” she shares.

“He doesn’t look any more like Brian Walden than I do Margaret Thatcher, but he got the rhythms; the rhythms of somebody’s speech, their text, etc. Steve Coogan could do imitations standing on his head, but it’s about getting behind those masks and gestures, to the heartbeat that makes that rhythm.”

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The journey to creating Brian and Maggie was a labour of love, and finding the right Margaret Thatcher was crucial. “The idea came to fruition because we more or less went back and forth with Channel 4, and they said, ‘Yes, do it.’ Then we had to find a Margaret Thatcher,” Coogan recalls.

“When Dame Harriet Walter agreed, I was very happy indeed. We wanted a heavy hitter and someone who could own Margaret Thatcher because it’s sort of become a genre in itself—like actresses giving their Lady Macbeth.”

Despite Coogan’s disdain for Thatcher’s politics, his portrayal is important. “Personally, I found her to be a very divisive figure, and I think that she did untold damage to the notion of community and the idea of people helping each other,” he admits. “But the fact that she had a radical approach I think is good.”

Walter’s portrayal also offers a fresh lens on Thatcher, focusing on the woman behind the public persona. “It’s written to tell a very specific story at a very specific point of her life looking at her relationship behind the screen, off camera, and I thought nobody knows what that bit is like,” she says.

Ultimately, Brian and Maggie offers viewers a chance to see Thatcher and Walden through an unexpectedly personal lens. Their story is not just about politics, but about two outsiders navigating their way into the heart of British history.

Brian and Maggie airs on Channel 4 this Wednesday and Thursday at 9pm.