First let me declare an interest. Two years ago, when I was Labour's director of communications, I had coffee with Peter Kosminsky in the Tate Gallery just down from the party's Millbank HQ.

He asked me to help with his forthcoming drama, The Project. I told him I could not. In fact, as he knew, I had already sent an e-mail to all Millbank staff urging them not to co-operate either. We were not called control freaks for nothing.

But I knew I would be leaving after the 2001 election - through choice not disillusionment - and I told him to get back in touch then.

Lance Price used to be a BBC political correspondent

Earlier this year, free of the constraints of being a Labour Party employee, I was interviewed at some length by Peter's researcher.

The picture I gave him of life inside New Labour was rather different to that portrayed over the past two nights on BBC One.

I make no complaint about that. I daresay they spoke to many people who had genuine and profound misgivings about how Labour had behaved both in opposition and in government.

Their accounts would have seemed far more compelling and dramatic than mine.

But the programme-makers' claim to have spoken to more than a hundred people should not be taken as evidence that they produced a balanced and accurate account of the times.

They did not. They could not have. They should not even have tried.

We were better by far than the Tories - and now, when nobody is paying me to say so, I can still say that we were

Lance Price

Good political drama, like bad political journalism, focuses on the splits, the dirty tricks, the betrayals. And this was good political drama.

Never mind that it said nothing whatsoever about all the things that made us proud of the government we were working for - the peace process, the dramatic falls in unemployment, the higher standards in schools to name but three.

Never mind that it contained scenes, like the physical violence from a whip against a young woman MP, that were barely credible.

Never mind that it perpetuated myths, like Labour hacking into the BBC's computer, that were pure fantasy.

I was one of the much-derided Special Advisers at Number 10 for two years. Yes, there were occasional periods of doubt, even the odd bit of skullduggery.

But my memories are of day after day trying to persuade the media, and through them the public, that New Labour was making a difference. That we were better by far than the Tories. And now, when nobody is paying me to say so, I can still say that we were.

Political life is more mundane than The Project suggested

It is tempting to get on a high moral horse and argue that portraying politics in which only the cynical survive, election promises are broken, and good people end up either disillusioned or compromised is bad for democracy.

That it will only discourage other good people from going into politics and encourage everybody else to lose whatever faith they have left in politicians.

But that is like saying The Bill does little to help with police recruitment. It misses the point.

There is far too little good drama on the box these days with the rise of real-life TV, so we should be thankful of the chance to see talented actors in a well-written script.

But the producers should not claim to be showing it as it really was, and if they do we should have the good sense to remember that every day life is always more complex, and usually more mundane, than anything we would want to sit down and watch for entertainment.

The Project told us a story; it did not tell us the story.

Did you see The Project? What did you think of the programme? Send us your comments using the form at the bottom of the page.

Forgive the cliche but where there's smoke, there's fire. Sure, the New Labour spin doctors are briefing against this drama, but that's what makes it all the more believable.
Jonathan Miller, UK

An enjoyable but fictional account of the rise of New Labour which skillfully merges fact with supposition
Chris Grimshaw, England

Very simplistic and one-sided. Naive, childish argument. Not at all persuasive.
VK, UK

An interesting dramatisation of what some believe is the New Labour phenomenon. The reality is very different but there were some things very true - the organisation and will to win, using the media to best effect, power dressing etc - but people should not be sucked itno believing this is the reality. It ain't!!
Mike Lawlor, UK

I am writing under a pseudonym and was part of "The Project" but it was utterly different from the way the BBC portrayed it. People standing poised over fax machines, pagers going off every 5 seconds. Hmm....the truth is it was much more mundane than that.
Robert Archer, UK

Watching The Project (as good as it was for a political drama) should be taken in the same contents as watching the film Titanic. A real situation with a fictional storyline, nothing else.
Richard Peacock, UK

Sorry - the project did not work for me. It was confused,contrived and hid behind the cloak of artistic licence. Make a film about the real people or tell us what this film really was - drama. Not very good drama at that.
Barry Lacey, UK

After watching the second part, I felt that I could relate to the fact that a life in politics could destroy your dreams of the so called "freedom"!
Cristina Deddis, UK

Although good entertainment the anti-Labour bias was quite shocking. It got worse and worse as the programme went on. It is probably the only good thing that has happened to the Tories this year.
Tim, UK