0:00:03 > 0:00:06This is the secret world of Whitehall.
0:00:06 > 0:00:12Decisions taken here behind closed doors affect all our daily lives.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15In this three-part series, I'm telling the inside story
0:00:15 > 0:00:21of what goes on within the three great institutions at the very heart of government - the Cabinet Office,
0:00:21 > 0:00:2610 Downing Street and the private office network across Whitehall.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Tonight, the remarkable house that's been the office
0:00:29 > 0:00:33and home of our prime ministers for nearly three centuries.
0:00:33 > 0:00:39Those who have worked here reveal what life is really like behind the world's most famous front door.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41'When I first went to Downing Street, I thought it
0:00:41 > 0:00:44'was a completely unsuitable place to run a government from.'
0:00:44 > 0:00:47'Number 10 has always been a bit of a snake pit.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52'I mean, I don't imagine it's ever run incredibly smoothly, with everybody loving each other.'
0:00:52 > 0:00:56It's a cross between a sort of stately home and a student union building.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59My first six months in Number 10 were the most miserable of my working career,
0:00:59 > 0:01:04and I would include in that working as a butcher in Sainsbury's.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08You must understand about working in Number 10. It's a total pantomime.
0:01:27 > 0:01:33Since 1735, a terraced house in Whitehall has been the residence
0:01:33 > 0:01:36of a remarkable succession of British prime ministers.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49# I like my town
0:01:51 > 0:01:54# With a little drop of poison
0:01:56 > 0:01:58# Nobody knows
0:01:58 > 0:02:03# They're lining up to go insane... #
0:02:07 > 0:02:13Last year, David Cameron became the 53rd prime minister to enter Number 10,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17where the staff were lined up for the traditional greeting ceremony.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21The first thing was the sort of incredible sense of honour and challenge.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26You're elated and you're exhausted, because you've had an incredibly tough campaign,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29and then you turn and go in through the door.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33And it was quite a strange feeling, but also incredibly welcoming,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35because this tradition of being
0:02:35 > 0:02:37clapped and cheered in by the officials,
0:02:37 > 0:02:42who have just clapped and cheered out the outgoing prime minister, makes you feel very welcome.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46And I remember sort of walking through there and at that moment thinking, you know,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50"Right, this really has happened."
0:02:50 > 0:02:55The only time TV cameras have filmed the clapping-in ceremony was with John Major nearly 20 years ago.
0:02:55 > 0:03:03Major was returning as prime minister to Number 10 having won an unexpected general election victory.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Thank you very much indeed. I've only got one thing to say - it's nice to be back.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09APPLAUSE
0:03:09 > 0:03:12But five years later, it was a very different scene after
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Major had lost the general election to Tony Blair by a landslide.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20When the curtain falls, it's time to get off the stage, and that is what I...
0:03:20 > 0:03:27Whenever a prime minister's defeated, the staff in Number 10 share the grief.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29Tony Blair recalls how,
0:03:29 > 0:03:35when he came in in 1997, he was applauded into Downing Street
0:03:35 > 0:03:41by people who had tears pouring down their cheeks because they were sad about the departure of John Major.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44And Tony Blair said he felt a heel.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49Yes, I think he did. I think he was very nice to one of the secretaries.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52He went up to her and said, "What's the matter?"
0:03:52 > 0:03:57She said, "Well, we're very glad to see you, but we're so sorry to see poor Mr Major having gone."
0:03:57 > 0:04:01It's a very, I would say, traumatic time for Number 10,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05because we say goodbye to a departing prime minister
0:04:05 > 0:04:09that we have worked loyally for for quite a long time
0:04:09 > 0:04:13and we clap them out, and then we need to work very quickly.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19Usually you have less than an hour to get the building ready for a new prime minister's arrival.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29Once inside Number 10, new prime ministers are taken down the corridor to the Cabinet Room.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33There, they'll learn about their most frightening new duty.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Every prime minister has to hand-write top-secret letters
0:04:37 > 0:04:42to the commanders of the Trident submarines that carry Britain's nuclear weapons.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45One of the most awesome responsibilities
0:04:45 > 0:04:50that a prime minister has is the instructions that have to be given
0:04:50 > 0:04:54if the British government has been destroyed
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and the nuclear submarines are at sea.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02What are the orders to the commander of the nuclear submarines
0:05:02 > 0:05:07where there is no decision-making left in the UK?
0:05:07 > 0:05:12Tony Blair went really rather quiet when he was briefed, which was understandable.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15He'd never been a minister before, you see,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17let alone indoctrinated into the nuclear world.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20And this time, it wasn't just the Cabinet Secretary, it was the new
0:05:20 > 0:05:25National Security Adviser who did the briefing for David Cameron.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27That's when you know you're Prime Minister.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30I don't think anything prepares you for that, when you have to sit down
0:05:30 > 0:05:38and write from beyond the grave to decide whether to launch the British nuclear force or not.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43For nearly three centuries, prime ministers have governed from Number 10.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48It's a deceptive building, because it is in fact two houses, not one,
0:05:48 > 0:05:53with a much bigger redbrick mansion at the back joined onto the house on Downing Street.
0:05:54 > 0:06:01Inside, it's like a TARDIS, with a long corridor connecting the two houses to make one Number 10.
0:06:01 > 0:06:08From this unlikely house of history, the world's largest empire was run and two world wars were won.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12But Number 10 itself had very shady origins.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17It was jerry-built by a rascally figure called Sir George Downing.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21He was a spy and double agent turned property speculator.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26The street he gave his name to once boasted pubs and whorehouses.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31Downing put up a cul-de-sac of shoddily built houses on boggy ground.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36In 1735, King George II gave Number 10 to his prime minister.
0:06:36 > 0:06:42Since then, the PM's workplace and home has undergone many facelifts.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45It's been adapted and partially reconstructed
0:06:45 > 0:06:49in an attempt to make it fit for the purpose that it wasn't built for.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Number 10 is a very modest building, and if you compare it
0:06:54 > 0:06:57with the offices in which other heads of government work,
0:06:57 > 0:07:03like the White House or the Elysee Palace in France and so on, it is of course tiny,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06and that often impresses people, because it is so small.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09When I first went to Downing Street, I thought
0:07:09 > 0:07:12it was a completely unsuitable place to run a government from.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14It doesn't feel like a modern office.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Because it was a house, it was intimate, and there weren't all
0:07:20 > 0:07:27that many people working there, and everybody felt part of the family.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32You really all felt as if you were in it together.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36But it's not always a game of happy families among the secretaries, messengers, switchboard operators,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41civil servants and political advisers who make up Number 10's extended family.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50On his first day in power, Tony Blair and his wife
0:07:50 > 0:07:56walked past the pictures of every previous prime minister to the state rooms on the first floor.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00The rooms are used for press conferences and parties,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04receiving foreign leaders and for official dinners.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07The Blairs had only been inside Number 10 once before,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11as they hadn't wanted to look as if they were taking things for granted.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20Above the state rooms, you come to the attic, which is where
0:08:20 > 0:08:21the prime minister lived,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24in a flat which these days I doubt many councils
0:08:24 > 0:08:25would offer to asylum seekers.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Really very small and poky.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31And everything is fairly close at hand.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34That's the good thing in having a very, very small kitchen.
0:08:34 > 0:08:40And as you can see, we all have to be very, very economically spaced.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42Now, I think...
0:08:42 > 0:08:48The Number 10 flat in the attic is far from grand, and the Blairs, like some other
0:08:48 > 0:08:53previous prime ministerial couples, were not attracted by the idea of living there.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56We had to persuade Gordon Brown to give up the Number 11 flat and
0:08:56 > 0:08:59allow Tony and Cherie to live there, which he did with difficulty.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03I think that Gordon was very keen to preserve his space.
0:09:03 > 0:09:04I think he thought,
0:09:04 > 0:09:09like Germany in the 19th century, he was going to gradually take over everything
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and there'd be nothing left while we sought lebensraum in Number 11.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15Oh, I'm sorry for being late. Very nice to see you.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20The new chancellor welcomed a group of businessmen to 11 Downing Street.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22It's a very strange arrangement,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27because Tony Blair actually stays in Number 11 Downing Street.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29He's got a big flat upstairs.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33And I stay at Number 10 Downing Street, so we swap.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36There's an upstairs connecting door, is there?
0:09:36 > 0:09:38- There's lots of connecting doors! - LAUGHTER
0:09:38 > 0:09:43We had a bit more difficulty when Leo was born, because we needed more space, because of course with yet
0:09:43 > 0:09:45another child, the Blairs needed another bedroom.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48And so we had to move them further along the corridor
0:09:48 > 0:09:52into Number 10, and we had to steal a room from Gordon.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56And Gordon was quite, sort of, grumpy about this and insisted on
0:09:56 > 0:09:59a letter saying he could have it back when Euan went to university.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04I thought that was rather nice, the concordat between the Number 11 flat and the Number 10 flat.
0:10:05 > 0:10:12Number 10's most historic room is where every cabinet has met since the 18th century.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16By tradition, the prime minister's chair is the only one with arms,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20and is left permanently half-out from the table.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Some prime ministers totally dominate their cabinet,
0:10:23 > 0:10:29others seek consensus, and some seek to ignore it altogether.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31As there's no specific office set aside
0:10:31 > 0:10:38for the prime minister in Number 10, some prefer to work and receive visitors in the Cabinet Room itself.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Ah, but that was part of the trick.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44If you sat in an overwhelming room with a table 25 feet long,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47just think what the poor man who never used it
0:10:47 > 0:10:50felt when he came in and sat opposite you!
0:10:50 > 0:10:51I won't say it was like Mussolini,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54who I'm told used to make you walk the whole length of his room,
0:10:54 > 0:11:00but it was quite an experience, obviously, for people to come into the Cabinet Room and sit there,
0:11:00 > 0:11:02even when the Cabinet wasn't there,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05in order to discuss things with the prime minister.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Margaret Thatcher would use the first-floor study as her office.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12All modern prime ministers inherit two key parts of the Downing Street
0:11:12 > 0:11:17machine to help them run the Government in the way they choose.
0:11:17 > 0:11:24In pride of place is the Number 10 private office, that's staffed by a handful of young-ish civil servants.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29Their task is to reduce the pressures on the prime minister and make the job more manageable.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32These so-called private secretaries
0:11:32 > 0:11:39are high-fliers, mainly from the great Whitehall departments like the Foreign Office and the Treasury.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43The other main support for the prime minister is the press office.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Its job is to try and manage the news from Number 10.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49The press secretary gives the official line
0:11:49 > 0:11:53to the political journalists at the twice-daily lobby briefings.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58- It continues to be difficult... - And the press office is on round-the-clock call to the media.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00That's the point we're trying to make.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Do we dispute the figures published in the Times?
0:12:02 > 0:12:05There's no written constitutional definition
0:12:05 > 0:12:11of the job of prime minister, and each new incumbent of Number 10 makes it up as they go along.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14One thing you've got to understand straight away about Number 10
0:12:14 > 0:12:18is that people think of it as a sort of modern office,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22absolute Rolls-Royce machinery at the centre of government.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25I mean, on a good day, it is a bit like that,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28but actually, it has this sort of informal style.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33It's a cross between a sort of stately home and a student union building.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41It's recreated in the image and style of each new incumbent
0:12:41 > 0:12:43to the office of prime minister.
0:12:45 > 0:12:51The first prime minister to live at Number 10 was the Old Etonian Whig Robert Walpole.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Though he was only supposed to be the first among equals in
0:12:54 > 0:12:58his cabinet, he so dominated his colleagues that "prime minister"
0:12:58 > 0:13:03became a term of abuse, meaning someone too big for his boots.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09The Victorian titans, the Liberal Gladstone and the Tory Disraeli,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11were bitter political rivals.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16They continued the tradition of being by far the most formidable members of their government,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20and each accused the other of illegitimately using Number 10
0:13:20 > 0:13:22to build up his personal power base.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Goodbye, Mr Chamberlain, and thanks for all you've tried to do.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33We welcome the new prime minister, Mr Churchill.
0:13:33 > 0:13:40In 1940, Winston Churchill took over Number 10 with the Nazis on the rampage across Europe.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Churchill set up a coalition government with Labour, and he formed a streamlined
0:13:47 > 0:13:53war cabinet of fire to take swift military and political decisions.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Downing Street was sandbagged against Nazi attacks.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59AIR RAID SIREN
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Churchill insisted on staying put in Number 10.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05He had the basement rooms specially strengthened against bomb attacks,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07and the staff were supplied with tin hats.
0:14:07 > 0:14:15And Churchill appointed his youthful private secretary to double up as Number 10's air raid warden.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18I was in the private secretary's room
0:14:18 > 0:14:23and in the mirror, I saw the most extraordinary apparition
0:14:23 > 0:14:25coming down the stairs.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30It was the rotund figure of the Prime Minister in his enormous quilted
0:14:30 > 0:14:36Chinese dressing gown with great red and golden dragons writhing around it.
0:14:36 > 0:14:43Slung over his shoulder was the regulation knapsack carrying the regulation gas mask
0:14:43 > 0:14:45and his tin hat on his head,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48trundling down the stairs.
0:14:48 > 0:14:54He came within sight of the mirror, and I saw him and he started.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58A broad grin spread over his face and he came and said, "John,
0:14:58 > 0:15:03"conditions of total war do produce some most remarkable spectacles."
0:15:05 > 0:15:10In the Blitz, Number 10 was a top target for Hitler's bombers.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12Although all the Number 10 windows were
0:15:12 > 0:15:17blown out by bombs landing nearby, the house didn't suffer a direct hit
0:15:17 > 0:15:21and these photos were kept secret by the wartime censors
0:15:21 > 0:15:23for fear of damaging public morale.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26When he could, Churchill went on working in Number 10,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30and it was from the Cabinet Room he made his famous wartime broadcasts.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35Today is Victory in Europe Day.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Tomorrow will also be Victory in Europe Day.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Advance Britannia!
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Long live the cause of freedom!
0:15:44 > 0:15:49But Churchill wasn't rewarded for victory, and left Number 10 by the back door
0:15:49 > 0:15:52after losing the 1945 election.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57A decade later, Anthony Eden and Clarissa, his new wife, who was
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Churchill's niece, had their wedding reception in the Number 10 garden.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Eden succeeded Churchill,
0:16:05 > 0:16:10but he was forced to resign as a sick man after the debacle of Suez.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Eden's wife said that she felt as if the Suez Canal
0:16:13 > 0:16:16had been flowing through her drawing room at Number 10.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23Eden's successor was another Tory Old Etonian, Harold Macmillan.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26He came to power with Number 10 in a state of turmoil.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30You'll understand me when I say that it's with a mixture of sorrow
0:16:30 > 0:16:35and pride that I speak to you as Prime Minister of Britain.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41Sorrow, because my friend and leader has had to lay down his burden
0:16:41 > 0:16:44because of grievous illness.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Apart from that, it's a proud thing
0:16:47 > 0:16:53to be given the office of Prime Minister of Britain.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56He arrived to find the ship of state
0:16:56 > 0:16:59practically on the rocks.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05There was a fevered atmosphere of almost panic in Number 10,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07complete crisis.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12I believe he told the Queen he didn't think the government was going to last more than six weeks.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15And it wasn't just Macmillan's government that was precarious.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20Downing Street was in a very, very bad state, falling down in fact.
0:17:20 > 0:17:26There was considerable subsidence to the point that in the kitchen,
0:17:26 > 0:17:30the Office of Works had to come and put blocks under the legs at one end
0:17:30 > 0:17:38of the kitchen table so that Mrs Bell's rolling pin didn't roll off when she was making pastry!
0:17:38 > 0:17:41- Mrs Bell the cook? - Mrs Bell the cook, yes.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43Inside Number 10, the cracks
0:17:43 > 0:17:46in the walls showed how the building was subsiding.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51Macmillan authorised extensive rebuilding works and set about trying to bring order to the
0:17:51 > 0:17:57Number 10 private office, which had itself been demoralised by Eden's increasingly splenetic behaviour.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02It was a different atmosphere because Harold Macmillan was extremely good
0:18:02 > 0:18:07at calming everybody down, because actually, it had been a very frenetic
0:18:07 > 0:18:12time and I think he thought we'd all got rather overworked up
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and he calmed us all down very well.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19That was a famous occasion when he put up on the door that quotation,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23"Quiet, calm deliberation disentangles every knot."
0:18:23 > 0:18:26To which my great friend John Wyndham added
0:18:26 > 0:18:29"And remember if it doesn't, you'll certainly be shot."
0:18:30 > 0:18:33John Wyndham was an old friend of Macmillan's
0:18:33 > 0:18:34and an ex-diplomat.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Macmillan had brought Wyndham in to work as his political adviser in Number 10.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42It was a trend that would grow rapidly with later prime ministers.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48Labour's Harold Wilson formalised the position when he came to power in 1964.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52He set up a new political office to be run by his long-time private
0:18:52 > 0:18:54and political secretary, Marcia Williams.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59Her aim was to bolster Wilson politically and prevent him becoming
0:18:59 > 0:19:02a prisoner of the civil servants who ran Number 10.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04'In '64, there was a bad atmosphere.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09'The senior civil servants had been there 13 years and we were new.'
0:19:09 > 0:19:14It's a building where most of the senior people are men
0:19:14 > 0:19:16and in the main, they tend to be rather conservative.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21Unlike John Wyndham, Marcia Williams was an outsider, a grammar school girl
0:19:21 > 0:19:25who wasn't afraid to ruffle the mandarins' feathers.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30'Marcia Williams had a certain idea of the civil service, that a lot of them were closet Tories.'
0:19:30 > 0:19:34There was just one Marcia against a lot of them.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38It was her view that when she went in with him for the first time as
0:19:38 > 0:19:44prime minister in 1964, the civil servants tried to shut her out,
0:19:44 > 0:19:49tried to put her in a remote room.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54She said they wouldn't at first let her have official Number 10 writing paper.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58The civil service was so suspicious of political appointees
0:19:58 > 0:20:01that if they had to read anything classified or confidential,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03they had to stand up next to the desk
0:20:03 > 0:20:05of the Principal Private Secretary and read it there
0:20:05 > 0:20:10cos they couldn't be trusted to take it away. There was lots of resistance.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Marcia Williams saw herself as Wilson's socialist conscience.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18She fought many pitched battles inside Number 10 against what she
0:20:18 > 0:20:21saw as the obstructionist and reactionary mandarins.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25But after six years, Wilson lost office.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28CHANTING
0:20:28 > 0:20:31When Ted Heath became prime minister in 1970, he was determined
0:20:31 > 0:20:35to run Number 10 in an entirely different way from Harold Wilson.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39I was given no brief of any kind
0:20:39 > 0:20:43but I'd deducted from things that Ted had said
0:20:43 > 0:20:46that one thing he wanted me to do was to make peace
0:20:46 > 0:20:48where there had been war.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52Number 10 had become a battlefield, a battlefield in the political office
0:20:52 > 0:20:55run by Marcia Williams, and the civil service.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Sometimes Marcia won a bit and sometimes she'd be forced to retreat.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02I was clear that that had to come to an end.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Ted Heath greatly admired the civil service that he'd once planned to join.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12He came increasingly to rely not on his cabinet ministers,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16but on the head of the civil service, Sir William Armstrong.
0:21:16 > 0:21:23The top mandarin was a shrewd operator and managed to bond with the usually prickly Prime Minister.
0:21:23 > 0:21:29William Armstrong became so influential that he was dubbed "the real Deputy Prime Minister".
0:21:31 > 0:21:35William and Ted hit it off in a big way.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39I could understand why ministers so loved William Armstrong
0:21:39 > 0:21:43as an adviser because he had a remarkably silky voice.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47He'd sit and chain-smoke, there would be wreaths of cigarette smoke
0:21:47 > 0:21:52going up, and this wonderfully soothing voice, and his fertile intelligence
0:21:52 > 0:21:57would always give the appearance, and I'm sure William believed it, that there was a way through.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59That it was going to be all right.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06But it was a rough time, and Heath soon ran into a range of economic and trade union problems.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15Heath was forced into a humiliating series of U-turns.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Douglas Hurd, who was your political secretary,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22noted in his diary at the time, "The government is
0:22:22 > 0:22:24"wandering around the battlefield,
0:22:24 > 0:22:29"looking for someone to surrender to and being massacred all the time."
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Oh, well, that was silly.
0:22:31 > 0:22:32Very silly.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37I mean, the very language of it is silly.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39How can a responsible person,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42especially someone who was secretary to the prime minister,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44produce stuff like that in his diary?
0:22:45 > 0:22:48But the chain-smoking civil service chief William Armstrong
0:22:48 > 0:22:54became seriously alarmed as inflation soared and the miners went on strike.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58I think for William, the political and economic crisis of '73, '74
0:22:58 > 0:23:02saw everything he'd grown up to believe in breaking up,
0:23:02 > 0:23:08and as things got worse and worse, those who were at meetings with him
0:23:08 > 0:23:12noticed the apocalyptic note getting ever louder in what William said,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15that the country really was in the grip of forces
0:23:15 > 0:23:18that might actually wreck it.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24At Number 10, Robert Armstrong, who was Heath's Principal Private Secretary but no relation
0:23:24 > 0:23:30to William, was growing increasingly concerned about the civil service chief's erratic behaviour.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34William Armstrong came to talk to me and asked if we could
0:23:34 > 0:23:38withdraw to another room where we weren't bugged.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40And I don't know why he thought we might be bugged,
0:23:40 > 0:23:46and took off his jacket and lay on the floor, and chain-smoked
0:23:46 > 0:23:52and talked very wildly about the desperate state of the nation.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54The next day, he apparently called
0:23:54 > 0:23:58a meeting of all the permanent secretaries and said, "We must
0:23:58 > 0:24:00"prepare for the end of the world
0:24:00 > 0:24:04"and you must all retreat from Whitehall and go to the country."
0:24:04 > 0:24:11And the Principal Private Secretary told him he phoned the Prime Minister, Ted Heath,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15and said they'd had to lock up the head of the civil service,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19and Ted Heath said in that very relaxed way of his,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22"Oh, I thought he'd been behaving a bit oddly of late."
0:24:22 > 0:24:24It was a very strange episode.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Heath called a snap election and lost.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32He had to leave Number 10 after less than four years in office.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38Well, I was bitterly disappointed. I wanted to continue, but it wasn't possible.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45When Harold Wilson returned to Number 10, he was determined to build up his political power base.
0:24:45 > 0:24:50He created a new policy unit to take on the official Whitehall machine.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53It was an innovation that has lasted to the present day.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00Harold Wilson said to me that having previously been prime minister for six years, one
0:25:00 > 0:25:04of his main conclusions was that the prime minister,
0:25:04 > 0:25:07who was in one sense the most powerful man in government,
0:25:07 > 0:25:14was in another sense the weakest, because he didn't have a department backing him,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18providing him with all the statistics and the information,
0:25:18 > 0:25:23the ammunition for the Whitehall battles, and that's what he wanted.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Marcia Williams and Wilson's press secretary, Joe Haines, augmented
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Donoughue as political advisers in the battle with Whitehall.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38But they were to fall out among themselves over the role of Marcia Williams.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Harold Wilson would come down the back way to avoid going
0:25:41 > 0:25:43past her office from his flat,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47and come into my room and ask me to give him a drink.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52He was safe in my room, you see, because she wasn't going to come crashing in there.
0:25:52 > 0:25:53She never did.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58Marcia clearly had a considerable hold over Harold Wilson,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00who was afraid of her.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04I was there once with him in the study in Number 10,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07the phone rang and he obviously knew it was her.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11He leapt to his feet and ran
0:26:11 > 0:26:15across the room to the...bathroom
0:26:15 > 0:26:21in the corner, and as he went in said, "Tell her I'm not here!"
0:26:21 > 0:26:27She seemed to have some kind of power over him,
0:26:27 > 0:26:29I don't really understand it.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32I don't think they were sleeping together or anything like that.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35I don't know what it was, but he didn't stand up to her.
0:26:37 > 0:26:44My concern was it diminished his capacity to function fully as a prime minister.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Harold Wilson's personal doctor Joseph Stone
0:26:49 > 0:26:53grew concerned about the effect Marcia Williams was having on the Prime Minister.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Joe Stone came into my room one day and said he was worried about the
0:26:58 > 0:27:01stress that she was causing Harold
0:27:01 > 0:27:04and something had to be done about it.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08I said, "Joe, I've tried, he won't get rid of her, there's no way."
0:27:08 > 0:27:12And Joe said, "I could dispose of her."
0:27:12 > 0:27:17He said, "I'm her doctor, and I'd write the death certificate."
0:27:19 > 0:27:21I remember Joe Stone said to me
0:27:21 > 0:27:24it was in the national interest she be put down.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29We both said no. Just imagine it.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32Just imagine!
0:27:32 > 0:27:34Press secretary kills...
0:27:34 > 0:27:39Or press secretary in conspiracy to kill
0:27:39 > 0:27:40Prime Minister's secretary.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44"Murder in Number 10", I can write the headlines now.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46So we said no.
0:27:46 > 0:27:52After just two years back at Number 10, Wilson suddenly made way for an older man.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56Having held the other three great offices, Jim Callaghan had,
0:27:56 > 0:28:01in Disraeli's phrase, climbed to the top of the greasy pole.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05'When you have become prime minister, you went in for the first time,
0:28:05 > 0:28:11'I must tell you there's no other feeling in the world like it.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15'I stood by the chair in the centre of the Cabinet table.'
0:28:15 > 0:28:18Without being too pi about it, it was almost a religious sensation
0:28:18 > 0:28:20for a moment.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Callaghan said he saw himself as Moses,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27chosen to lead his people from the wilderness to the promised land.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Chancellor Denis Healey said Britain was facing bankruptcy
0:28:31 > 0:28:35and needed to apply to the IMF for a huge loan.
0:28:35 > 0:28:41But the Cabinet was bitterly divided between left and right, about the terms of the loan.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Callaghan then provided a textbook example of how to manage a split cabinet,
0:28:46 > 0:28:52by holding seven day and night Cabinet meetings over a fortnight.
0:28:52 > 0:28:58I decided to have a serious of Cabinet meetings and allow every member to be cross-examined
0:28:58 > 0:29:03by his colleagues so they could see them what was the strength or weakness of his proposals.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07I went through all that exercise and, at the end, I had a united cabinet.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12But the Prime Minister's triumph was short-lived.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16He came up against the power of the trade unions.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21They launched a devastating series of public sector strikes in what
0:29:21 > 0:29:24was to become known as the Winter Of Discontent.
0:29:28 > 0:29:34The Winter of Discontent was a most depressing time in Number 10.
0:29:34 > 0:29:40The government became quite impotent, the Prime Minister felt impotent
0:29:40 > 0:29:44and we sat in Number 10 unable to do anything.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48The Prime Minister was sitting in his study on his own
0:29:48 > 0:29:53with few visitors. It felt like being on an Atlantic liner
0:29:53 > 0:29:57where all of the engines had stopped.
0:29:57 > 0:30:03Number 10 in those days was often cathedrally calm
0:30:03 > 0:30:06and it now had the calm of the morgue.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14When the first woman prime minister came to power in '79,
0:30:14 > 0:30:19she quickly decided that Number 10 needed a serious facelift.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22When Margaret Thatcher first came to Number 10,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24she was pretty disappointed with the state of it.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27She thought it basically looked like a furnished house to let,
0:30:27 > 0:30:29with pretty inadequate furniture,
0:30:29 > 0:30:35and the area outside the Cabinet Room she compared to a down-at-heel Pall Mall club.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39She did go to considerable lengths to smarten it up.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44- THATCHER:- I don't think anyone had quite looked at it as a whole
0:30:44 > 0:30:50or been quite interested enough in Downing Street as a house.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55I got more strength into the whole place.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03She had symbolic portraits installed.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06This one, I think, of Wellington, is excellent.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08You can see the determination.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11You can see the Iron Duke.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16Nelson, again, this expression in the eyes they've got.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21We were absolutely right to have these two great heroes
0:31:21 > 0:31:23of British history.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27People who fought AND WON crucial battles,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31and they fit beautifully into that space.
0:31:31 > 0:31:38Mrs Thatcher had arrived in Number 10 with a profound suspicion of the civil service but, ironically,
0:31:38 > 0:31:43two individual civil servants were to become her most influential and trusted advisers.
0:31:43 > 0:31:49One was the private secretary who advised her on foreign affairs, Charles Powell.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54POWELL: Margaret Thatcher had an enormously informal way of working with her private office staff.
0:31:54 > 0:32:00It came through in many ways. She would argue with us as though she was arguing with a cabinet minister
0:32:00 > 0:32:05and she had a disturbing habit of wandering into the private office to find out what one was doing.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10On one occasion, she came down and sat on my desk and then answered my telephone.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12She said, "What do you want?"
0:32:12 > 0:32:17And the unfortunate voice said, "I was hoping to speak to Charles Powell."
0:32:17 > 0:32:20"Well, you can't. He's much too busy." Bang!
0:32:20 > 0:32:24The other civil servant who became Margaret Thatcher's most powerful adviser
0:32:24 > 0:32:27was her press secretary, Bernard Ingham.
0:32:27 > 0:32:34He was an abrasive Yorkshireman who was to become known as Margaret Thatcher's Rottweiler.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36Were you temperamentally suited for
0:32:36 > 0:32:39- the role of Number 10 press secretary?- I don't know.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42I think there is at least an argument to say that somebody with
0:32:42 > 0:32:47my fiery temper and forthright views and determination
0:32:47 > 0:32:50perhaps should never have come anywhere near Number 10
0:32:50 > 0:32:52except, of course, to serve Mrs Thatcher.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Why "except, of course, to serve Mrs Thatcher?"
0:32:55 > 0:32:57Well, because of those qualities,
0:32:57 > 0:33:02I think I could quite adequately represent her attitude too.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09Margaret Thatcher's use of her Cabinet could scarcely have been more different from Jim Callaghan's.
0:33:09 > 0:33:16In opposition she'd said that once in Number 10 she wouldn't waste time on internal arguments.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19Margaret Thatcher's style was to announce the conclusions
0:33:19 > 0:33:22of the meeting and then challenge all-comers to fight her.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26Mrs Thatcher was not a collegiate prime minister. She would...
0:33:26 > 0:33:29come close to summing up before the meeting took place.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33- How did you find that? - Well, you got used to it
0:33:33 > 0:33:38- and you knew the techniques by which you had to survive.- Which were what?
0:33:38 > 0:33:43Well, you didn't give in and you insisted on getting your words out
0:33:43 > 0:33:46no matter how often you were interrupted and you just kept going.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50I think sometimes a prime minister SHOULD be intimidating.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54There's not much point being a weak, floppy thing in the chair, is there?
0:33:56 > 0:34:00But the two blonde bombshells were to fall out dramatically.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04At one cabinet meeting, Heseltine suddenly stood up and walked out.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08It would be wrong for me to say anything at this instant.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12I have resigned from the Cabinet and I will make a full statement later today.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17'Of course it was portrayed as storming out.'
0:34:17 > 0:34:20I have never stormed out of anything in my life.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22I am a pancake. I do not get roused.
0:34:22 > 0:34:28Hezza was the first minister to walk out of the Cabinet in 100 years,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32claiming Mrs Thatcher had rigged the agenda.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35What I will not tolerate is people who cheat.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Did you think Mrs Thatcher was cheating?
0:34:37 > 0:34:39She did, no question about that.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42- Were you in the Cabinet when Michael Heseltine walked out?- Yes.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44- What did you think? - I thought...
0:34:44 > 0:34:50Well, I wasn't surprised. Michael Heseltine is
0:34:50 > 0:34:56a man given to high drama and clearly he had run out of road space.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01ANNOUNCEMENT: The Prime Minister and Mr Thatcher.
0:35:01 > 0:35:06After 11 years at Number 10, Margaret Thatcher had grown increasingly regal.
0:35:06 > 0:35:12She was accused of being out of touch and seeking to run a government within a government.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17Leading members of her cabinet gradually turned against her.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21She had become more dependent on people in whom she had confidence
0:35:21 > 0:35:25and particularly in Bernard Ingham and Charles Powell,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30to the extent which they had usurped the position of
0:35:30 > 0:35:33some of the Secretaries of State,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36and this was a weakness, I think, in the end.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39It was an important part of Margaret Thatcher's demise.
0:35:41 > 0:35:48Challenged in a leadership election, Mrs Thatcher failed to win outright on the first ballot.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51JOURNALIST: Mrs Thatcher, when are you going to resign?
0:35:51 > 0:35:56Most of her cabinet ministers advised Mrs Thatcher that she should step down.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00After a long, dark night of the soul in Number 10,
0:36:00 > 0:36:04the Iron Lady reluctantly decided the game was up.
0:36:06 > 0:36:0911 years after the first woman prime minister
0:36:09 > 0:36:11had been clapped in to Number 10...
0:36:12 > 0:36:15..she was clapped out.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21HEATH: I expected it to happen sooner or later.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26I thought then there would be a chance of getting sensible policies.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28But they didn't change very much.
0:36:28 > 0:36:35It was said that you rang your office and said, "Rejoice, rejoice!"
0:36:35 > 0:36:37I said it three times, I think.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39"Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!"
0:36:41 > 0:36:43Heartbreak.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45Of course it was.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47It was a terrible thing.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51History keeps on writing it up and it was an awful thing.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56Bad men voting for bad principles.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59If you are in politics you expect there will be knives in the back.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01What I will never forgive is,
0:37:01 > 0:37:05it wasn't by Parliament that I was thrown out.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08And this was after nearly 11 years
0:37:08 > 0:37:15when I had taken Britain from the slough of despond to the heights.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19I shall never forget that and I shall never forgive.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24One of the Iron Lady's tangible legacies to Downing Street
0:37:24 > 0:37:26were the new security gates.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31With no access for the public, the risk of a prime minister developing a bunker mentality was increased
0:37:31 > 0:37:37and the gates would fail to protect the building itself.
0:37:37 > 0:37:43In 1991, Mrs Thatcher's successor John Major held a meeting of his newly formed war Cabinet.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47It was the start of the first Gulf war against Saddam Hussein
0:37:47 > 0:37:53and the cabinet was discussing the threat of Iraqi terrorist attacks in London.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57BUTLER: The most extraordinary thing which I recall clearly was
0:37:57 > 0:37:59that John Major had just used the word "bombs".
0:38:01 > 0:38:04EXPLOSION
0:38:04 > 0:38:07And there was this tremendous explosion.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09Go back up the street. It is not safe.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13Two mortar bombs had been fired at Number 10
0:38:13 > 0:38:18by the Provisional IRA from a white van in Whitehall.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20Keep away from these windows!
0:38:20 > 0:38:27The windows all shook, the French windows at the end of the cabinet room burst open
0:38:27 > 0:38:30and, perhaps because of the context we were talking about,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34my first reaction was that this was a terrorist attack
0:38:34 > 0:38:37where people had come over the wall of Number 10,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41blown open the cabinet doors, the French windows,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44and we were all going to be sprayed with gunfire.
0:38:44 > 0:38:50I dived under the table, and so did some of the others.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52I was sitting next to John Major and my first reaction
0:38:52 > 0:38:55was to put my hand on his head and push him down under the table.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58We got down under the table and there was a tremendous aftershock.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01We could hear the windows being blown in and then
0:39:01 > 0:39:04the sound of what seemed very much like a second mortar.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08EXPLOSION Nobody knew what to do.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12What do Englishmen do when they are being mortared in their Cabinet Room?
0:39:12 > 0:39:14It wasn't entirely clear.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16I looked around and there was the Cabinet Secretary
0:39:16 > 0:39:20and the rest of the Cabinet crouching under the table.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25The next thing that happened, perhaps the most dangerous phase, was the Cabinet Room door burst open
0:39:25 > 0:39:28and the number of middle-aged, rather overweight policemen
0:39:28 > 0:39:31came rushing in waving 1948 Webley revolvers.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33This was getting really serious.
0:39:33 > 0:39:38I don't think they had ever been fired, and I don't even know if they knew how to fire them.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40It could have been a disaster.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43We waited there a moment until the aftershock went away.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47We got up, asked for people to go and check and see what damage was done
0:39:47 > 0:39:51and I then said, "Well, I think we had better go and start somewhere else."
0:39:52 > 0:39:55The War Cabinet reconvened in a secure area.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00There had been no serious casualties from the mortar attack.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05After winning the 1992 election, Major's last years in office
0:40:05 > 0:40:07were plagued by cabinet splits over Europe.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11He explained why he didn't sack trouble-making Euro-sceptic ministers,
0:40:11 > 0:40:15when he talked candidly after a TV interview in Number 10
0:40:15 > 0:40:18without realising he was still being recorded.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Where do you think most of this poison has come from?
0:40:21 > 0:40:23The dispossessed and the never possessed.
0:40:23 > 0:40:28You and I can both think of ex-ministers who are going around causing all sorts of trouble.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30Would you like three more of the bastards out there?
0:40:30 > 0:40:35When New Labour came to power, Tony Blair and his top two political advisers,
0:40:35 > 0:40:40Alastair Campbell and Jonathan Powell, planned to run Number 10 in a new way.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45Powell said they wanted a Napoleonic system with greatly increased control
0:40:45 > 0:40:49over civil servants and ministers exercised from the centre.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53POWELL: In terms of the jobs at Number 10, I had a fairly clear idea before we went in.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57In particular, I felt from looking at what had happened under John Major
0:40:57 > 0:40:59or under Mrs Thatcher,
0:40:59 > 0:41:00there was a lack of a Chief of Staff,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03there was no-one who brought everything together.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06You had the political side competing with the Civil Service side,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09the foreign policy side competing with the domestic side.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11The press side competing with the policy side.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14No-one under the Prime Minister was answerable for the whole lot.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18So, in my view, you had to have someone who could reconcile those differences
0:41:18 > 0:41:21before the Prime Minister had to be dragged in.
0:41:21 > 0:41:27We created the job of a Chief of Staff who was part civil service and part political.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Tony Blair didn't believe the Cabinet was the right body to take big decisions.
0:41:31 > 0:41:37He preferred working informally with his trusted advisers from the sofa in his office.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41- BUTLER:- It clearly came as quite a new idea to Tony Blair
0:41:41 > 0:41:43that big decisions of government
0:41:43 > 0:41:47should be collective decisions of the Cabinet,
0:41:47 > 0:41:52and I don't think he ever really, during my time, acclimatised to that.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Determined to dominate the news agenda,
0:41:55 > 0:42:01Blair gave unprecedented power to his spin doctor Alastair Campbell, the former tabloid journalist.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05Do you often come to your press secretary's office?
0:42:05 > 0:42:08I do if I'm passing, which I happen to be.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12- How important is your press secretary to you?- Not at all.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14What?
0:42:14 > 0:42:18How important is Alastair Campbell to you?
0:42:18 > 0:42:21A press secretary is important for the Prime Minister.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23It would be odd if he wasn't.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Everyone says the importance you put on relations with the media
0:42:26 > 0:42:29is greater than it has ever been in the past.
0:42:29 > 0:42:30It is just modern government.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33It is a 24-hour-a-day news media.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36It is not as if these stories don't take a life of their own
0:42:36 > 0:42:40and start running away into the far distance and the publics thinks,
0:42:40 > 0:42:44"What are they doing that for?" when you are not doing it at all.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49It is important to have the capacity to get on top of the news as far as possible.
0:42:49 > 0:42:54What is important for me is that it doesn't disturb me from doing the things that are really important.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58Which are, you know, the things for the country,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01otherwise there is no point doing this job.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05People can believe that or not but that is what I spend my time thinking of.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09It's why you just spent seven minutes talking to Michael Cockerell.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11LAUGHTER
0:43:13 > 0:43:18Alongside Campbell and Jonathan Powell, who is the brother of Charles Powell,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22Blair had brought in a slew of other special advisers to Number 10.
0:43:22 > 0:43:27My impression on my rare visits to Number 10 in Tony Blair's time
0:43:27 > 0:43:29was that it had become a bit of a slum.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33There were so many people working or hanging around Number 10
0:43:33 > 0:43:37it was almost like a railway station, so many people coming and going.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42For me it had rather lost the elegance and the calm
0:43:42 > 0:43:44which, for me, characterised Number 10.
0:43:44 > 0:43:49Now it was a sort of scurrying exchange.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53People rushing to and fro in jeans. It just seemed to be different.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58Working at Number 10, Matthew Taylor, the former policy wonk,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01was Blair's Director of Political Strategy.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06I used to go running most days so I would often be found
0:44:06 > 0:44:09wandering around Number 10 in my shorts and running shirt.
0:44:09 > 0:44:15So Tony, as we know, is quite informal in the way in which he did things.
0:44:26 > 0:44:32We talked to your brother Charles, and his sense of Number 10 under you.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35He said Number 10 became like a slum, like a railway station
0:44:35 > 0:44:38with people wandering around in jeans.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41He's thinking of me, I think, in my bicycling gear.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44He always disapproved of the way I dressed.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49When the Prime Minister is away, Number 10 becomes eerily quiet.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51But an infamous day a decade ago
0:44:51 > 0:44:56vividly illustrated how Downing Street coped with a calamity.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00On 9/11 itself Tony had gone down to Brighton to give a speech to the TUC
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and I'd stayed behind in Number 10 Downing Street
0:45:03 > 0:45:05expecting a nice, quiet day.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07I was using Tony's office, we had gone into to the den
0:45:07 > 0:45:10and we were meeting in there as the first plane hit the tower.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14The duty clerk put his head around the door and said "another plane's gone into the World Trade Center",
0:45:14 > 0:45:18and I said, "Don't be silly, it's repeating the film again." He said, "No, no, it's another one."
0:45:18 > 0:45:21Immediately we tried to grab control of what was happening.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23It was lunchtime, so the mandarins were all out at lunch.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26I was coming back from lunch
0:45:26 > 0:45:28and my driver said as I got in the car,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32"Someone's driven a plane into the World Trade Center."
0:45:32 > 0:45:35I said, I thought, "This is probably an amateur."
0:45:35 > 0:45:38And...I turned on the radio.
0:45:38 > 0:45:44As we drove back we heard a second plane had gone into the tower.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48I said, "Oh, this sounds more serious."
0:45:48 > 0:45:53And Jeremy Hayward, the Prime Minister's private secretary, who was still in Number 10,
0:45:53 > 0:45:57rang me up and said, "We think the White House may be going to evacuate,
0:45:57 > 0:45:59"should we be evacuating Number 10?"
0:45:59 > 0:46:01I said, "Where would you go to?"
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Jeremy said, "I'm not sure."
0:46:04 > 0:46:10I said, "Well, I think it's quite a good rule not to evacuate until you know where you're going to go to."
0:46:10 > 0:46:14I had this image of all the staff of Number 10 standing on the pavement,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17with their laptops, cellphones and briefcases,
0:46:17 > 0:46:22and I thought what a good photograph it would be in the paper the next day. So we stayed put.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24Nice and calmly out the front, ladies and gents.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29As the media were evacuated from Downing Street, the officials left behind
0:46:29 > 0:46:33considered what information they had about those behind 9/11.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37In the immediate aftermath it occurred to me how little we knew about the Taliban.
0:46:37 > 0:46:419/11 had happened and we hadn't really had the Taliban on our radar screen at all.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45I walked down Whitehall to the Waterstones on Trafalgar Square
0:46:45 > 0:46:47and bought a copy of all the books I could find on the Taleban.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50The only one that was any use was one by Ahmed Rashid,
0:46:50 > 0:46:54which is a very good book about the Taliban and the fights with the warlords.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58I sat at my desk and read this for the next 12 hours.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01I read the whole book. Alastair and Tony became jealous
0:47:01 > 0:47:03and wanted to have my copy and had to wait.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Alastair got to read it first and Tony after that.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08Then we were the experts on the Taliban.
0:47:08 > 0:47:09But it's not chapter seven...
0:47:09 > 0:47:14Jonathan Powell and Alastair Campbell became the most powerful unelected figures in the government.
0:47:14 > 0:47:20They were members of Tony Blair's war cabinet on Afghanistan as well as Iraq.
0:47:20 > 0:47:26The wars were to weaken Blair and hasten his departure from Number 10.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Also in the war cabinet was the Chancellor, Gordon Brown,
0:47:29 > 0:47:35who'd long felt that he should take over Tony Blair's job.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38The only time I noticed him cheering up was when the war cabinet
0:47:38 > 0:47:41was briefed on a death threat to Tony and a smile crossed his face.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43I thought that was very amusing.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48After a decade, Tony Blair left Number 10 with his family.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53It now included their young son Leo, who had been born during the Blair premiership.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57What the 24-hour media called the Blair soap opera was at an end.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59Goodbye!
0:47:59 > 0:48:01I don't think we'll miss you.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11The previous week, Blair had been asked whether the fact he was going had sunk in.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Er, yeah, no... I definitely don't have a problem with it.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18I've prepared for this for a long time.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21I've no problem at all. I know everyone thinks I should be...
0:48:21 > 0:48:25sort of...
0:48:25 > 0:48:30you know, in a state of denial about it, but I'm absolutely fine.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35- BROWN:- This will be a new government with new priorities,
0:48:35 > 0:48:39in the service of what matters to the British people.
0:48:39 > 0:48:44And now let the work of change begin. Thank you.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48MANDELSON: Gordon didn't have an absolutely clear idea from the beginning
0:48:48 > 0:48:51how Number 10 could and should operate under his premiership.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54I think he came to Number 10 with a clear sense of
0:48:54 > 0:48:55it not being Blair's Number 10,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58so he would overcome sofa government, so-called,
0:48:58 > 0:49:03he would deprive political advisers of powers to instruct civil servants
0:49:03 > 0:49:07and he would have a different set-up on the spin agenda.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11It was very defined in antithesis to Blair.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14A visit to the Mayor of New York's office
0:49:14 > 0:49:18inspired Gordon Brown with an idea for how he should run Number 10.
0:49:18 > 0:49:23Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a former financial trader turned media mogul
0:49:23 > 0:49:27and Brown was impressed with the Mayor's open-plan office.
0:49:29 > 0:49:34It was a mix of trading floor and newsroom with giant TV screens.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39Brown brought the Mayor's concept back with him across the Atlantic.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41He had his own office and senior staff
0:49:41 > 0:49:44moved along the linking corridor from Number 10 to Number 12.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46How you doing there? OK?
0:49:46 > 0:49:48And created what he called the War Room.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53Gordon put himself and his immediate and top civil servants
0:49:53 > 0:49:56and political advisers and speech writers
0:49:56 > 0:50:03all around a bank of computers and workstations with large screens,
0:50:03 > 0:50:07you know, BBC over there and Sky behind you.
0:50:07 > 0:50:14He was in the middle, a bit like Mission Control. He was the pilot.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Just cast your mind back to Number 10 under Harold Macmillan
0:50:18 > 0:50:21and fast forward to Gordon Brown, you know,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24in the War Room with the televisions, you know,
0:50:24 > 0:50:29and everyone at their desks and computers with the commander in the field,
0:50:29 > 0:50:32as the Prime Minister saw himself, you know, driving everyone,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35responding to things very quickly
0:50:35 > 0:50:40and taking thoughts from the television and sending his orders out.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44Gordon would often look up at the screen and see who was saying what.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46If he didn't like it, he would let you know.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49Would he shout at the screen and say, "That's wrong"?
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Oh, sometimes if he saw somebody saying something
0:50:52 > 0:50:55on the telly that he didn't agree with or felt was inaccurate,
0:50:55 > 0:50:57then he would let the television know.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59I thought it must have been bedlam,
0:50:59 > 0:51:02but the open plan was the way in which he thought
0:51:02 > 0:51:04it was most effective to work.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Working with Brown in the War Room and trying to dominate
0:51:08 > 0:51:12the round-the-clock news media was Damian McBride.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16A former Treasury official, McBride had been hand-picked by Brown
0:51:16 > 0:51:19for his aggressive mastery of the black arts of spin.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22He was quickly dubbed "the Prime Minister's attack dog".
0:51:22 > 0:51:26But McBride's emails proposing a sexual smear campaign
0:51:26 > 0:51:30against leading Tory politicians and their wives were leaked.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33Brown at first refused to say "sorry"
0:51:33 > 0:51:35for McBride's actions.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39Prime Minister, will you apologise for Damian McBride's emails?
0:51:39 > 0:51:41Until he felt he had no alternative.
0:51:41 > 0:51:47When I saw this first, I was horrified, I was shocked and I was very angry indeed.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52The person who was responsible went immediately, and lost his job.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57- MANDELSON:- Gordon never entirely succeeded in having
0:51:57 > 0:52:01the right people in the right positions
0:52:01 > 0:52:04with the right links and relationships
0:52:04 > 0:52:08working in the absolutely right way.
0:52:08 > 0:52:13MATTINSON: The atmosphere in Number 10 got worse and worse.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16You know, people were incredibly unhappy.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22Gordon had been at his best when he was positioning himself
0:52:22 > 0:52:27- against a clear enemy...- Tony Blair? - Be it his neighbour in Number 10,
0:52:27 > 0:52:31be it poverty, he was at his best
0:52:31 > 0:52:34when he was positioning himself against something.
0:52:34 > 0:52:39When suddenly the stage was his, and he had to say what he was FOR,
0:52:39 > 0:52:41he found that much more difficult.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45Brown became increasingly indecisive in Number 10.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47According to one of his civil servants,
0:52:47 > 0:52:49he never once finished a Red Box,
0:52:49 > 0:52:54and big issues would pile up as Brown spent his time on micro-management.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58TAYLOR: Gordon Brown's management at Number 10 struck me as being pretty tense.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02If the Prime Minister tries to get into the depth of every single issue,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05it's a recipe for overload and madness.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07Are you going to resign, Mr Brown?
0:53:10 > 0:53:12You've lost, haven't you?
0:53:12 > 0:53:15Two days after last May's general election
0:53:15 > 0:53:17that put Labour behind the Tories in a hung parliament,
0:53:17 > 0:53:23Brown was still seeking a deal that would enable him to stay in Number 10.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28I went into Number 10 on the Saturday to talk about
0:53:28 > 0:53:31what the prospects might be for a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition
0:53:31 > 0:53:35but the weird feeling was that Number 10 was no longer the source of power.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40This place, which is at the heart of the British state, where power is supposed to reside.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43It was clear to me that power was not in the building.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48Brown stayed put in Number 10 for four days after the election,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51still hoping to construct a last-minute deal,
0:53:51 > 0:53:54when his chief negotiator, Peter Mandelson, came in.
0:53:54 > 0:54:00Gordon was on phone to Nick Clegg and I listened in, perfectly clear
0:54:00 > 0:54:04that Nick Clegg and David Cameron were going to form a coalition.
0:54:04 > 0:54:05They needed to get on with it.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10I said after the phone call had ended, "Gordon, this is it.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13"You shouldn't really be hanging around.
0:54:13 > 0:54:19"You certainly shouldn't be hanging around waiting interminably for these two guys to make up their mind
0:54:19 > 0:54:26"with the result that you might end up leaving Number 10 at nine or 10 o'clock at night. In the dark."
0:54:26 > 0:54:28You know, "Is that the way we want people to see you,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31the Labour prime minister leaving Downing Street
0:54:31 > 0:54:34"after 13 years in office, in the dark?"
0:54:34 > 0:54:35I didn't like that at all.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39My resignation as leader of the Labour Party will take effect immediately,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43and as I leave the second most important job I could ever hold,
0:54:43 > 0:54:49I cherish even more the first, as a husband and father.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52Thank you. And goodbye.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57CAMERON: On the steps of Downing Street yesterday evening,
0:54:57 > 0:55:02I said that Nick and I wanted to put aside party differences
0:55:02 > 0:55:05and work together in the national interest.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09Cameron says that when he arrived in Number 10, Brown had left him
0:55:09 > 0:55:14a good-luck present of a bottle of whisky, but no revolver.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16CHATTER
0:55:16 > 0:55:22Cameron was determined to run Number 10 very differently from Blair and Brown.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26This is the first coalition government for 65 years.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29I think it's a great achievement to have put it together.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32We have a great opportunity, I think, for the long term
0:55:32 > 0:55:35because we have the chance of a five-year government
0:55:35 > 0:55:39where we can really grapple with the problems the country faces.
0:55:39 > 0:55:45The oldest member of the coalition cabinet has served in every Tory government from Ted Heath's on.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48- CLARKE:- David Cameron's returned to collective government.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50It was practically dead as a dodo,
0:55:50 > 0:55:55listening to the ex-senior civil servants under Blair and Brown.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57They just had a little group in their study,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01where the only people who knew what was going on really decided anything.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04We had gone back to having a proper Cabinet system,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07a proper Cabinet committee system which I am used to.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10Every Tuesday there's a Cabinet. It used to start at nine.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14With the change of Prime Ministers we now start at 9:45
0:56:14 > 0:56:18because the Prime Minister and Deputy are taking their children to school first.
0:56:18 > 0:56:19That's a change from the past.
0:56:19 > 0:56:25Cameron said that transparency and openness were the coalition's watchwords.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29He was cutting back sharply on the number of unelected political advisers.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32One side, please.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34Move to one side, please.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38But the Number 10 minders hadn't exactly embraced the new glasnost.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40Move to one side, please.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44And David Cameron's top two special advisers in Number 10
0:56:44 > 0:56:47sought determinedly to stay out of the limelight.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52One is the camera-shy Steve Hilton,
0:56:52 > 0:56:56a rebranding expert who invented the Big Society.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58He's brought his casual dress sense to Number 10,
0:56:58 > 0:57:03where he pads around in jeans and socks.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07But Hilton was often at odds with Cameron's other major special adviser.
0:57:07 > 0:57:13The highly controversial Andy Coulson had the job of connecting Cameron to the tabloids.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Coulson had resigned as editor of the News of the World
0:57:16 > 0:57:20while denying any involvement in phone-tapping by his journalists.
0:57:20 > 0:57:25The affair continued to haunt him in Number 10, though Cameron tried to stick by him.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28CAMERON: I choose to judge him by the work that he's done for me,
0:57:28 > 0:57:32for the Government and for the country. He's run
0:57:32 > 0:57:34the Downing Street press office
0:57:34 > 0:57:36in a professional and competent and good way.
0:57:36 > 0:57:42If you compare that with the days of the dodgy dossiers and Alastair Campbell and Damian McBride
0:57:42 > 0:57:45and all that nonsense we had from the previous government,
0:57:45 > 0:57:47he has done an excellent, excellent job.
0:57:47 > 0:57:53Coulson resigned, saying that when the spokesman needs a spokesman, it's time to go.
0:57:53 > 0:57:58After other presentation and policy gaffes, Cameron made a sharp U-turn.
0:57:58 > 0:58:03He brought into Number 10 a new group of Blair-style special advisers
0:58:03 > 0:58:07including a new political strategy chief and a ten-strong policy unit.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15It was all a far cry from the Downing Street rose garden when a year earlier.
0:58:15 > 0:58:20David Cameron was coming to realise that however sunny the start you make as Prime Minister,
0:58:20 > 0:58:25cold reality will always follow you into Number 10.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29Next week, in the last episode of this series,
0:58:29 > 0:58:33I'll be uncovering the hidden network of high-powered Whitehall warriors
0:58:33 > 0:58:36that operates to try and save ministers' skins
0:58:36 > 0:58:39and keep the government of the day in power.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44# I like my town
0:58:45 > 0:58:50# With a little drop of poison
0:58:50 > 0:58:53# Nobody knows
0:58:53 > 0:58:57# They're lining up to go insane
0:58:57 > 0:59:01# I'm all alone... #
0:59:01 > 0:59:04Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:04 > 0:59:07E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk