Bernard Donoughue

Documentary looking at the heatwave of 1976. The longest driest spell on record led to drought, water rationing and forest fires. As the country sweltered, tensions rose.

Michael Cockerell tells the story of how prime ministers have coped with life after Number Ten, after Tony Blair became the youngest member of the ex-PMs' club for a hundred years. The film reveals who left office bankrupt, who did TV commercials for Cheshire cheese, who had his own chat show and who has never had a single happy day since leaving Number Ten. Cockerell, who met the eight PMs prior to Blair, looks at what Tony planned do next and just how many millions he could make from being an ex-PM.

Harold Wilson and Edward Heath are two very different men equally overlooked by history, but they were the political titans of the era in which Britain changed for ever. For ten years they faced each other in the House of Commons, and swapped in and out of Number Ten. They fought four general elections, three of which were amongst the most exciting of the century.

BBC obituary documentary written and presented by Anthony Howard. Broadcast on the day of the death of Harold Wilson, May 24th 1995.