Political Thrillers
Politics Unpacked
Anna Covell
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Plenty of former MPs, advisers and political journalists have tried their hand at writing fiction, and they often turn to the drama and skulduggery of Westminster for inspiration. So what makes a good political novel? Matt Chorley speaks to Conservative peer and House of Cards author Michael Dobbs, who says if he wrote a sequel he would introduce new, younger characters.
Plus the first installment of the Times Radio Columnists Festive Focus Group, led by former Number 10 pollster James Johnson. Matt's regular panellists look back on a dramatic year for the Conservative Party.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today's episode of Red Box is sponsored by EDF, the driving force behind a greener Britain. |
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| 0:58.0 | Hello, this is the Red Box podcast. I'm Matt Shirley and it's beginning to look a lot like |
| 1:02.4 | Christmas. We've got some absolute treats coming for you on the podcast this week. Later in the |
| 1:06.9 | week, we'll bring you the politics at the boring quiz quiz of the year. We'll have the Panto |
| 1:13.0 | and throughout this week. Instead of the Columnist panel, we've got a very special Times Columnist |
| 1:17.2 | focus group. James Johnson is our normal focus groups sat down with loads of our regular times |
| 1:23.1 | panelists to ask them what they think about this year in politics, what they think about Christmas, |
| 1:28.3 | all that sort of stuff. So we'll do that just about it. The main thing on the podcast today is |
| 1:32.9 | everyone in Westminster seems to be writing a book, Cleo Watson, one of Boris Johnson's former |
| 1:36.9 | A's is the latest to write a thriller, which is out next year. So what does it take to write a |
| 1:40.8 | political thriller? I asked Michael Dobbs, who created House of Cards, Edwina Curry, |
| 1:46.0 | former MP, written loads of books, and Robert Preston, political journalist, who's now working on |
| 1:50.9 | his second thriller. That's coming up in just a set. But first, we kick off with our vote first, |
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