Press

The Mail on Sunday
27 January 2007
By RICHARD BARBER
Source

By’eck, Tracey… I hope Pauline isn’t watching

These are the scenes that may leave John Prescott wishing he had resigned and sought the comfort of obscurity after his affair with Tracey Temple was exposed last year.

The whole embarrassing saga of the Deputy Prime Minister’s torrid fling is about to be played out in front of millions of viewers in an ITV1 drama.

Seen here for the first time, these stills from Confessions Of A Diary Secretary show actress Maxine Peake playing Tracey Temple, while the great New Labour lothario is portrayed by John Henshaw.

Maxine, 32, who played lumpen Twinkle in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies, admits: “I didn’t feel a twinge of conscience about portraying a real person. Tracey kissed goodbye to her privacy when she sold her diaries for £250,000.”

As Tracey refused to speak to her, Maxine had only the diaries to try to get to know her.

“She was explicit enough about her sex life with Prescott,” says Maxine, “but she never addressed her feelings. Nor was there any guilt. It was like reading a teenager’s diary, not that of a woman in her early 40s.

“It takes a little while to get your head round why anyone would want to have an affair with the man. He abused the office of Deputy Prime Minister. If you run the country, it means keeping your trousers zippered.”

The famous party scene in which Prescott scoops up a giggling Tracey into his arms is played out in full. Director Andy Wilson says: “They’d have sex in his office, just yards from any number of colleagues. You could certainly say that his desk was fit for purpose.”

Wilson says he hopes to avoid ever meeting Prescott. “If I knew I was going to meet him, I’d make sure I was wearing my cricket box and a chin-guard. The man’s not going to like what we’ve done. At least, I hope not. If he does, we won’t have done a very good job, will we?”

The drama will be screened on Wednesday, February 7.