I'm a documentary filmmaker and have met Tony Blair, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky – this is what they all had in common

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

Over three decades as a documentary-maker, I’ve been able to get up close to – and even under the skin of – some of the most powerful figures of our time, from President Zelensky and Donald Trump to, most recently, Sir Tony Blair. Power is irresistibly fascinating for those of us who don’t possess it. But what have I learnt from interviewing some of the most powerful people in the world?

Tony Blair, who I interviewed for the three-part Channel 4 series The Tony Blair Story, kept me on my toes. His self-assurance rarely cracks, even when interrogated about what many view as his gravest mistake, the invasion of Iraq. Despite this conviction, what emerges is a level of emotion and psychological introspection that’s rarely been seen on camera.

I was also able to speak with his wife Cherie, and – unprecedentedly – three of their grown-up children, Euan, Kathryn and Leo, which added a more intimate perspective on a man whose decade in power has shaped Britain and the world.

It was evident, power can be a solitary business. “One of the things you learn,” he told me, “is that ultimately you sit in the seat. You’ve got to take the decision.” His former spin doctor Alastair Campbell recalls how, late into the night after the invasion of Iraq, he found Blair at his desk in Number 10: “It was one of those moments when I wished I could paint. It was an absolute portrait in the isolation of power.”

President Zelensky, who I interviewed in 2023 for BBC Two series The Zelensky Story, presented a different challenge. Head of state of a country at war, it was a tall order to get him to give an interview and then open up about himself.

It required two trips to Kyiv to secure, with sleep interrupted by descents into the air-raid shelter as sirens blared. Despite unimaginable pressures, Zelensky proved to be engaging, thoughtful, touching and funny.

My encounter with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 – after the end of his first presidency – started coolly. He was head down, signing papers, gesturing to my colleague and me to sit down on the other side of his large, untidy desk. There to discuss the remote possibility of an observational documentary, within minutes he indicated that he was very unlikely to agree, and he still hasn’t.

But the trip to Palm Beach was not unproductive. The conversation suddenly turned to Putin and Ukraine, Queen Elizabeth (about whom he believed I was an expert), the then Princes Charles and William, and why he and I were both lucky to have a full head of hair – yes, really! It demonstrated the power of charisma and ceaseless confidence. Despite his record of outlandish statements, I could almost see how he had been able to seduce millions of voters.

Queen Elizabeth, of course, never gave interviews, but in making Our Queen for ITV during her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, we gained permission to film the beginning of her audience at Balmoral with then Prime Minister David Cameron. Near dusk, we were ushered into her sitting room, with its dog-beds and cushion embroidered “It’s good to be Queen”.

Amateur photographer that she was, she asked me, “Is the light all right? The sun goes down so quickly.” And joked about Queen Victoria – it felt like gold. She wielded her strange form of power with an entrancing serenity.

What did Queen Elizabeth and Blair talk about every week for the 10 years of his premiership? That I couldn’t ask him. But about almost everything else I did.

There’s no doubt power changes a person, as Cherie Blair reflected when she discussed her husband leaving office in 2007: “Your skill as a politician is about knowing about the people and living with the people and understanding what the people want. Ten years of living in the goldfish bowl, you kind of lose contact with reality.” Words that, perhaps, anyone in power should heed.

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The Tony Blair Story is on Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 at 9pm on Channel 4.

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