The Project (British TV serial)

The Project is a political BBC two-part 2002 television drama film, directed by Peter Kosminsky, and written by Leigh Jackson.

Though said to be closely based upon research, the film presents a fictionalised account of developments in the Labour Party through Blairism, detailing events from the party's failure to win the 1992 General Election through to its election victory in 1997 and re-election victory in 2001, seen through the experiences of three young activists.^[1]

The first part, "Opposition", was first shown on 10 November 2002, with the second part "Government" shown the next night (divided into two parts to account for the ten-o-clock news).^[2][3] The cast included Matthew Macfadyen, Naomie Harris and Paloma Baeza.^[4]

Having been a co-production with the Franco-German network ARTE, the film was broadcast in France in September 2003, under the title Les années Tony Blair (The Tony Blair years) / Projekt Machtwechsel (Project 'Power Change'). A re-run on UKTV Drama followed in 2004. BBC Four re-ran the film in September 2024, as part of their Remembers strand of programming, alongside an 18-minute interview with director Kosminsky.^[5][6]

Kosminsky said of the project; "This film is about idealistic young people who want to help Labour get into power and ultimately, change things. It is a realistic portrayal of how we got to May 1, 1997 and what happened afterwards."^[7]