May I have your attention please you can now book your train tickets on Uber and get

10% back in credits to spend on your next Uber ride so you don't have to walk home in the rain again.

Trains now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app. Hello and welcome to the Red Box Politics Podcast in The Times, I'm Matt Chorley.

In this special bonus episode I speak to Michael Dobbs it was so hurt at being

sat by market Thatcher that he created House of Cards 30 years ago the novel which

became a hit UK TV series which became a Netflix behemothamoth, before losing it,

star Kevin Spacey in the Me Too Wave,

which swept through the acting world.

He's had a front seat for some of the biggest real life

political dramas, predicting the downfall of the powerful,

and then sending them up on the page and on the small screen.

Michael welcome.

Lovely to be here.

Let's go back to the beginning though because before we...

Why am I saying lovely to be here?

You are sitting in my office in the House of Lords.

It's lovely for me to be here.

It's lovely to be here.

Before we come to House of Cars and all of that, let's go right back to the beginning.

You were in 1979, the first person to tell Margaret Thatcher

that she was going to be Prime Minister. Yes. Explain what was your job then and how did

you find yourself in that small piece of history?

...