Tony Blair: The Inside Story Episode 1

Michael Cockerell tells the inside story of Tony Blair's controversial ten years at the top. Candid interviews with Downing Street insiders, Cabinet colleagues and rivals cast new light on key events and on the Prime Minister's complex character. BBC Documentary. The first programme examines how Tony Blair came to power on a huge wave of public goodwill, as the Tories were swept out of office on a tide of sleaze and incompetence. With a blazing sense of mission, the new prime minister promised his government would be whiter than white, and that he would transform Britain and make the world a better place. Those who have been closest to Blair reveal in the programme how he responded to the many challenges and crises that face a modern prime minister, and how his early years in office taught him a number of painful lessons about the gap between spin and substance.