Bill Brand (1976)

Set in the mid-1970s and reflecting the complexities of that turbulent decade, Bill Brand stars Jack Shepherd (Wycliffe) as a newly elected left-of-centre Labour MP who struggles to reconcile socialist principles with the realpolitik of Westminster. This groundbreaking and unashamedly intelligent drama series is penned by Oscar-nominated dramatist Trevor Griffiths (Fatherland, Reds) and earned a BAFTA nomination for Jack Shepherd. A by-election in the solidly working-class constituency of Leighley sees Bill Brand, a former lecturer, elected to Parliament by a slim majority. Driven by a determination to improve the lives of his textile-worker constituents, he finds his ideas of representation are provocatively different from those of the whips; and in a world of oblique negotiations and hidden bargains – the uncomfortable realities of a minority government – Brand's fundamental belief in the Party is assailed by doubts, while his troubled personal life further endangers his tenuous political career.