Sir John Major

Available for over a year

In this series, Peter Hennessy, the historian of modern Britain, asks senior politicians to reflect on their life and times. Each week, he invites his guest to explore their early influences, their experiences of events and their impressions of people they've known. In the first programme in this run, Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, talks about his political journey from Brixton to Downing Street and the challenge of following Margaret Thatcher in Number 10. He discusses his difficult inheritance as Prime Minister in 1990 after the financial boom of the 1980s, the economic crisis of 'Black Wednesday' in September 1992, the divisions in his party, and how he took the first delicate steps in what became the Northern Ireland peace process. Peter's other guests in this run are Lord Hattersley (Roy Hattersley), the former Labour Deputy Leader and now a writer; Lord Steel of Aikwood (David Steel), the former Liberal Party Leader; and Dame Margaret Beckett MP, the only woman to have been Foreign Secretary and the first woman to lead the Labour Party (in 1994), and former Deputy Leader of her party. The producer is Rob Shepherd.