Press

The Independent
13 November 2006
By Maxine Frith
Source

ITV1 to take ’saucy look’ at Prescott’s affair

His Jaguar is nowhere to be seen - and neither is his well-coiffeured wife - but the picture does show John Prescott posing proudly outside the House of Commons with his former diary secretary Tracey Temple.

Just when the Deputy Prime Minister may have thought that he had finally lived down the humiliation of his adulterous affair, a new comedy is set to rake up the scandal all over again.

The television production company that chronicled David Blunkett’s sexual indiscretions in A Very Social Secretary earlier this year is now giving Mr Prescott the same treatment. Pictures released yesterday give a taste of the treatment Mr Prescott and Ms Temple can expect.

Entitled Confessions of a Diary Secretary, the ITV1 drama will, apparently, be a “saucy look” at the affair that almost cost Mr Prescott his job - and eventually forced him (reluctantly) to give up his grace-and-favour second home of Dorneywood.

The programme’s executive producer, David Aukin, said: “Our film will be a thoroughly entertaining account of the affair between Prescott and Tracey.

“It will aim to be a warm and comic piece that offers fresh insight into the upstairs downstairs world of Whitehall, where cabinet ministers and diary secretaries collide - sometimes with embarrassing and hugely amusing consequences.”

The action starts with the office Christmas party in 2002 for Mr Prescott’s department, at which the lovers allegedly first got together, and continues to the point at which the story broke in April of this year.

Miss Temple went on to sell her story to a newspaper, describing in salacious detail how they enjoyed sexual encounters in Mr Prescott’s office, with the door open and civil servants passing near by.

Pictures of the lovers cuddling at a party also graced the pages of many newspapers, while other women came forward to complain about Mr Prescott’s flirtatious manner.

The Deputy Prime Minister managed to hang onto his job - and to his wife - but was stripped of his department and of Dorneywood in the ensuing media firestorm. He has said that he will stand down as Deputy Prime Minister when Tony Blair leaves office early next year, and there are already several contenders for his job.

The show stars Maxine Peake, Veronica in Shameless, and the Early Doors actor John Henshaw as the Deputy Prime Minister.