Press Archive

The Evening Standard
02 February 2007
Source

Now Prescott is stripped bare

There was no sign of John Prescott or Tracey Temple at the launch of ITV’s new drama Confessions of a Diary Secretary held at The Hospital in Covent Garden.

The drama is billed as a “saucy look” at the affair that hit the headlines in 2006.

It charts the start of the affair at the office Christmas party in 2002 and runs until the story broke in April of last year.

Producer David Aukin said he had never met Prescott or Temple and neither of them had requested an advanced copy of the film. Nor had their respective lawyers requested a viewing.

“The most difficult thing about making this film was the fact that we didn’t want to put anyone off sex for life,” joked producer Lucy Robinson.

“This drama is about a sexual relationship which involves John Prescott, so as you will appreciate we had to make it tasteful.”

Others in the cast include Tony Slattery who plays the Chancellor.

Among the notorious Prescott incidents that feature is the egg-throwing incident which took place during the 2001 election campaign.

Writer Tony Basgallop said he had received a lot of colourful detail about Prescott from people who work in his office but not from any Labour MPs.

It is made by the same company that produced A Very Social Secretary, the hit satire about David Blunkett’s fall from grace for More4, and stars Maxine Peake as Tracey Temple and John Henshaw as the Deputy Prime Minister.