Of Spin Doctors, Whips, and Choristers: An Interview with Vincent Franklin

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Notes

1. Steven Fielding, A State of Play: British Politics on Screen, Stage and Page, from Anthony Trollope to The Thick of It (London: Bloomsbury, 2014).

2. In May 1976, Michael Heseltine, MP (leading the Conservative opposition) famously seized the Commons mace after a heated debate over the government’s Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Bill, and held it over his head in a gesture of defiance at Welsh Labour MPs, who had begun to sing ‘The Red Flag’. The next day, Heseltine apologised unreservedly for his behaviour.

3. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London (Conservative).

4. Nicholas Hytner was Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Great Britain from April 2003 to March 2015.