Inside the Commons

Episode
Episode Two - Upstairs Downstairs
Broadcast Info
2015 (58 mins)
Description
In this, the second episode of this major four-part series, presenter Michael Cockerell explores the ‘Upstairs-Downstairs’ world of the House of Commons. We see what goes on backstage at the State Opening, when the Queen comes to open the parliamentary year, including a surreal traditional search for gunpowder. Behind the pomp and pageantry, we meet the army of skilled workers who struggle to keep the Commons show on the road. We follow MPs who want to introduce their own Bills in the Commons and have to play a bizarre form of parliamentary bingo to get the chance. And we show how Labour and Conservative MPs conspire together to thwart their party whips.
In this episode we meet two very different MPs: Robert Halfon MP, a campaigning Conservative and thorn in the side of the Government, who receives an unexpected call from Downing Street. And Thomas Docherty, Labour’s Deputy Shadow Leader of the House, who goes to extraordinary lengths and makes unlikely alliances to guarantee time in the chamber for his party.
Genre
History; Law; Architecture; Politics; Government

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Inside the Commons". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/217663 (Accessed 09 Jan 2025)