TV comedy show gives Blair and Thatcher a fictional fling

Tony Blair and Baroness Thatcher are seen sharing pillow talk and a post-coital cigarette as Labour gets into bed with the Conservatives in a controversial new tele-vision comedy.

The Channel 4 show, The Hunt For Tony Blair, portrays the two longest-serving prime ministers of modern times having an affair.

Jennifer Saunders plays Lady Thatcher, dripping with jewels, while comic actor Stephen Mangan plays Blair, covered in lipstick marks.

The film, to be broadcast tomorrow at 9pm, has been made by the Comic Strip team. Saunders is reprising her role as the former Tory leader after a previous Comic Strip outing in Red Nose Of Courage in 1992.

Writer and director Peter Richardson has delved into vintage Hollywood glamour to perfect the role.

Saunders said: “I’ve been watching YouTube videos of her [Thatcher] but I find it very difficult to do real dialogue as it’s such a particular sort of voice. It’s very strange because it’s very soft, then very strident.”

She spoke warmly of being reunited with her former Comic Strip colleagues, with whom she has worked for three decades.

“It feels really lovely, like it used to,” she said.

And she praised the other actors who had joined the regulars.

“Stephen Mangan is brilliant and totally perfect for it.

“I think it’s great that it moves on and we get new talent in mainly because we are all getting on now so that does limit you,” she added.