Hello and welcome to another edition of the Political Party Replay Series. This with Tony Blair. This is from 2015 and November 2015 and this was the first time that Tony Blair appeared on the show and the only time that it appeared on it live. And as you can imagine, the show at that point had existed for, I think, a couple of years.

And the running joke, I guess, there'd been a slight running joke about whether you would ever come on and obviously just about my own politics.

On the night, as you can imagine, in a cabaret by London. So this used to be recorded at the St. James Theatre, which is now, I think, called the other palace and is down by Buckingham Palace in Victoria.

And I couldn't announce who it was. And it was a cabaret, but if you ever went, you will know it had this great conspiratorial, low-lit atmosphere to it. And it, because of the balcony, felt like the place had a low ceiling. And it was low-lit.

And this was the first time I'd ever been not able to announce who it was. Obviously for security reasons. And on the night, I remember, I would occasionally just tilt my ear in to the room and just listen to the hubbub.

And I remember hearing someone saying, well, it can't be anyone, any decent. I better be some backbencher. And then people spotted that Shirley Blair was there.

You could even go, do you think he's going to be Tony Blair? But I didn't confirm it until I went on and announced his name. And I remember seeing a guy in the second row, mouth the words,

fucking hell, it's Tony Blair. Or something like that. Maybe it was wholly fucking sheer. But I remember seeing him just F to himself.

And, well, in this interview, Tony Blair demonstrates why he is such a talented and rare politician and why so funny and interesting in the lot.

I mean, this is, you don't need me to tell you that if Tony Blair is on the show, he did, he was a great performer and it was a great night.

So I'm replaying these in case you don't know because I'm off for a bit. I mean, hospital, I've recorded these in advance.

You might be thinking, oh, right, he sounds absolutely fine. So I've handpicked these in advance. Thank you for all the messages you've been sending.

Even though I'm recording this in an event, I'm just so touched by how many of you got in touch. But enough about that, this isn't about me. This is about November 2015 at a man called Tony Blair.

Thank you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming down for the last show of the year.

We've had guests from across the political spectrum here and they've always been received with dignity. So I hope that applies tonight.

I'm cool. I'm really cool. I'm cool. I'm cool. It's just a nice, just any other night.

It's just any other night. It's just any other night. I don't really, I don't want to, I don't want to, you know, not give it in the show.

I think it's given by Brunso. We love people at the start of their career, we love people towards the end and tonight we have someone who, well, I shouldn't say that.

Someone who's had an amazing career, ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't guessed it already, I hope you really enjoy this because this is a very special treat without a doubt the most successful leader in the Labour Party's history.

The Labour Party's history, the Prime Minister of this country.

Thank you very much. You must have forgotten who I am.

Anyway. Well, Tony, thank you very much for coming down. It's a pleasure to have you here.

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