A film portrait of Willie Whitelaw

'I've always believed it's a great advantage in politics to appear slightly less intelligent than you may be,' says Willie Whitelaw. This film portrait by Michael Cockerell reveals how Whitelaw, 'Old Oyster Eyes', became the closest confidant of successive Tory Prime Ministers. As an only child who never saw his father, Whitelaw was brought up by his mother and he believes this experience helped him to get on with Mrs Thatcher. A Cambridge golf blue and a wartime MC, he has had a highly eventful political career: he met the IRA, served in the Falklands' War Cabinet and was the responsible minister when an intruder broke into the Queen's bedroom.

Whitelaw talks frankly about his life, his beliefs and Margaret Thatcher.

Produced and reported by Michael Cockerell

BBC Elstree