After all these years, people still take sides on Blair and Brown

The new BBC series on the New Labour years has reignited old arguments, writes John Rentoul

Tony Blair in the BBC series ‘The New Labour Revolution’ (BBC)

The broadcast of Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution has caused a satisfying splash in the pond of politics. The first episode received good reviews and episode two is on BBC2 on Monday at 9pm, although all five episodes are on BBC iPlayer for the binge watchers.

Professor Jon Davis, Mary Ann Sieghart and I, who were consultants for the series, are pleased with its reception, but the real praise should go to Steve Condie, the producer, and his team. It was their interviews, archive research and editing that made the programme so good.

What most intrigued me about people’s responses to the series were the different reactions to the same material. Some thought it confirmed what they knew from The Deal, Peter Morgan’s fictional film about the Blair-Brown relationship, which portrayed Tony Blair as the lightweight show pony and Gordon Brown as the deep-thinking intellectual behemoth.