Entertainment

BBC drama-documentary to lay bare 'betrayals and blunders' of 2016 Tory leadership campaign

The programme will air after the General Election and feature interviews with those involved in the campaigns jockeying for power.
The programme will air after the General Election and feature interviews with those involved in the campaigns jockeying for power. The programme will air after the General Election and feature interviews with those involved in the campaigns jockeying for power.

The story of David Cameron’s resignation and Theresa May’s ascent to power is being brought to the small-screen in a new BBC drama-documentary.

The programme, telling the story of the Conservative Party’s tumultuous 2016 leadership campaign, will air after the next General Election.

BBC2 said the programme was based on “exhaustive research and first-person testimonies” and would “lay bare the politicking and positioning, betrayals and blunders” of the time.

David Cameron
David Cameron
David Cameron (Christopher Furlong/PA)

A cast has not yet been announced for 20 Days – Battle For Supremacy, which will also feature interviews with those involved in the campaigns jockeying for power.

BBC2 controller Patrick Holland said viewers would “gain a really rich understanding of the backroom deals that took place in those 20 days between Brexit and then Theresa May becoming leader of the Conservative Party, what happened with Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, what happened between Johnson and May’s camps.”

Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson (Ben Birchall/PA)

He said: “It gives the audience a way of getting to the heart of that story. There are revelations that will be compelling and intriguing.”

A “full cast” will track “all of the stories that happened at the time”.

But Holland added: “It’s a fusion of drama and documentary. It’s not a full drama doing The West Wing for the Conservative Party.”

Asked whether the story would be of little interest if May did not get into power at the next election, he said: “Not at all. What happened after Brexit is an extraordinary drama.”

The programme was announced at the unveiling of the channel’s spring-summer line-up.