In 1989, an on-camera head to head triggered the then PM’s demise. Harriet Walter, Steve Coogan and James Graham discuss their gripping take on the bombshell broadcast

It was the interview that destroyed Thatcher. Three days after the furious resignation of her chancellor Nigel Lawson in October 1989, she went on TV for a 45-minute interview with an unlikely confidant of hers – Brian Walden, the Labour MP turned ITV journalist. She was ready for him, but she also trusted him: it wasn’t their first rodeo together. It was, however, emotionally intense.

“I think so many of his questions are beseeching,” says James Graham, the celebrated writer of Sherwood and Brexit: The Uncivil War, who has turned it into new drama Brian and Maggie, starring Steve Coogan as Walden and Harriet Walter as Thatcher. “Just say that you get it. Just say that you were wrong, just say that you’re not flawless. And if you do that, grab my hand and I’ll save you.” Saving her is the opposite of what happened.