The second in Channel 5's enlightening series on that great old British sport, the political sex-scandal, this time focused on a story I remember from when I was a boy, the disgrace of senior Tory politician Cecil Parkinson. A high flyer at the time, the story is told of how he had just masterminded Margaret Thatcher's landslide election victory of 1983 and appeared to be in line for a major promotion to the exalted position of Foreign Secretary and from there who knew, possibly the top job itself in the future The Party was heading to Blackpool for what was expected to be a triumphant, processional annual conference but behind the scenes all was not well.
Parkinson, apparently one of PM Thatcher's favourites, had just confessed to her privately that he had ended an affair with his secretary Sarah Keays even though she was already pregnant with their love-child. Then, as the conference began, the story broke, splashed all over the front pages, but Parkinson obviously thought he could face down Miss Keays by returning to his wife and toughing things out in public. He was wrong as his now ex-lover chose not to go quietly and accused him of twice breaking promises to marry her over the course of their four year long affair. With exquisite timing, she released her version of events to the Times newspaper the day Thatcher was to give her leader's speech, only when she duly did so, praising Saucy Cec to the heavens, he wasn't in attendance, having cried off in the wake of the news storm gathered about him.
What happened after that showed Parkinson in an even worse light. Not only did he never meet his new daughter after she was born, but he chose not to do so the whole of her life. Moreover, the poor young girl suffered life-threatening medical issues but he continued to completely ignore her and her mother, apart from paying to Keays the minimum requirement in child maintenance until she was of adult age. He even went so far as to impose a gagging injunction on the girl no doubt to protect his valued public and political image, which seemed to work as he was later restored to high office by Thatcher and even ennobled in the House of Lords as Keays struggled to bring up their child on her own.
The story is told by a number of his former Conservative colleagues, the unsurprisingly very much fence-sitting Matthew Parris and weirdly ironical Edwina Currie (will her romp with John Major feature later in the series? I very much doubt it, as both parties are still alive!) as well as opposing politicians like Neil Kinnock, who for once, doesn't say much. However the heavy-lifting in this documentary was done by the various journalists ("Private Eye's" Ian Hislop for one, really savours putting the boot in) and allies of Ms Keays who are withering in their contempt for Parkinson and his heartless treatment of her and especially his own flesh and blood.
I, for one was pleased to see this particular upper-class-twit (although he wasn't born one!) properly exposed for the love-rat he undoubtedly was. He died in 2016, having more or less ridden out the storm, although the programme does show him given a torrid time on live TV by a young female member of the audience obviously disgusted on Keays' behalf by his chicanery.
Noticeably made without any input from either Parkinson or Keays' side, and keeping to the rather sensationalist tone established on the previous episode about Lord Shaftesbury, this was definitely a scandal which you feel sure would have played out differently today.
