How to Win the TV Debate

How to Win the TV Debate (2010)

DocumentaryHistoryTV Movie

With Britain's first-ever political leaders' television debate imminent, award-winning reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers what it's like to take part in these contests and how leaders try to win them. He tells the inside story of why it has taken so long for such debates to arrive in the UK. The programme features candid interviews with US Presidents and their advisers on the tricks of the debate trade. Blending new film and behind-the-scenes footage, some never seen before, it's a tragicomic tale of high politics and low cunning. From John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon through to Barack Obama, candidates are seen being prepared for their debates, then in the sometimes funny, sometimes disastrous results on live television. Cockerell shows why for our would-be next Prime Ministers - Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg - the three debate stages across Britain will be what one former US President calls 'Tension City'.

Director: James Giles

Casts

	Michael Cockerell as Self - Presenter
	Neil Kinnock as Self
	Charles Kennedy as Self
	Michael Dobbs as Self
	Don Hewitt as Self
	Richard Nixon as Self (archive footage)
	John F. Kennedy as Self (archive footage)
	Robin Day as Self (archive footage)
	Nikita Khrushchev as Self (archive footage)
	Ted Sorensen as Self
	Ted Rogers as Self
	Bill Wilson as Self
	Pat Buchanan as Self
	Pierre Salinger as Self (archive footage)
	Harold Wilson as Self (archive footage)
	Alec Douglas-Home as Self (archive footage)
	Edward Heath as Self (archive footage)
	Lady Falkender as Self (archive footage)
	Jimmy Carter as Self (archive footage)
	David Gergen as Self
	Gerald Ford as Self (archive footage)
	Harry Reasoner as Self (archive footage)
	James Callaghan as Self (archive footage)
	Margaret Thatcher as Self (archive footage)
	Ronald Reagan as Self (archive footage)
	Nancy Reagan as Self (archive footage)
	Walter Mondale as Self (archive footage)
	Mike Pengra as Self (archive footage)
	Mark Goode as Self (archive footage)
	Harry Trewitt as Self (archive footage)
	John Major as Self (archive footage)
	Bill Clinton as Self (archive footage)
	George H. W. Bush as Self (archive footage)
	Frank Luntz as Self
	Alan Schroeder as Self
	Tony Blair as Self (archive footage)
	Peter Mandelson as Self
	Lance Price as Self
	William Hague as Self (archive footage)
	George W. Bush as Self
	Al Gore as Self (archive footage)
	Jim Lehrer as Self
	Barack Obama as Self (archive footage)
	John McCain as Self (archive footage)
	David Cameron as Self (archive footage)
	Gordon Brown as Self (archive footage)
	Nick Clegg as Self (archive footage)
	Sue Inglish as Self
	Andy Coulson as Self (archive footage)
	David Davis as Self (archive footage)

Crew