BBC Radio 4 LW

Things Can Only Get Worse

Drama: Political

1997-2001

Adaptation of John O'Farrell's best-selling book about the New Labour project.

Things Can Only Get Worse 

John O'Farrell

Hugh Dennis

Doon Mackichan

Lewis MacLeod

Jan Ravens

Victoria Lloyd

Things Can Only Get Worse: 1997-2001

Comedy

BBC Radio 4 - Things Can Only Get Worse, 1997-2001

How did British politics go from Labour landslides to Brexit? John O'Farrell finds out.

Comedy writer and accidental parliamentary candidate John O'Farrell adapts his best-selling memoir about Labour's 20-year identity crisis, from Labour landslides to Brexit.

O'Farrell's best-selling comic memoir about how he helped the Labour Party lose elections, with a bit of help from Hugh Dennis, Jan Ravens, Doon Mackichan and Lewis MacLeod. 

How did British politics go from New Labour landslides to Brexit and Corbyn? John O'Farrell is the comedy writer with a knack of finding himself at the heart of British politics; standing in Maidenhead against Theresa May in 2001, doing even worse in the Eastleigh by-election of 2013, successfully campaigning for a non-selective inner-city state school but then realising he had to send his kids to it. 

Looking back at the last 20 years in British politics, these are the frank and funny memoirs of one Labour activist who tried to carry on as usual long after politics stopped making sense. 

Episode 1 - 1997-2001
Election night 1997 ushered in a new era. Tony Blair promised a brave new future to the sound of D:Ream singing Things Can Only Get Better. That was certainly true for Professor Brian Cox. But the shine of that election victory is a distant memory in 2018. Just how did we get here?

written and read by John O'Farrell 

Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production.

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Things Can Only Get Worse

1997-2001

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