Inside Track

For 30 years Robin Oakley has reported from the front-line of British politics. Throughout the 1990s his was one of the BBC's most familiar faces on the "Nine O'Clock News", as night after night he stood outside the Houses of Parliament or 10 Downing Street, telling us about the highs and lows of political life, the swings and roundabouts of cabinet reshuffles, and the machinations and intrigues of top politicians. He has been a newspaper and television journalist all his working life. Having started out at the "Liverpool Post" in the 1960s, he moved to the "Sunday Express" in the 1970s, the "Daily Mail" in the 1980s, before becoming political editor of "The Times" - the best job in journalism he was told - in 1986. He reported on Margaret Thatcher when she was in full throttle and when she was driven out of office; on John Major's subsequent rise to power and the Gulf War; and he was there when New Labour swept to power. He has acted as Thatcher's official photographer in Siberia, and sat beside Blair as Alastair Campbell rewrote one of keynote speeches. Few people have been on the inside track of political journalism for longer than he has.
Now, after his much publicized "early retirement" from the "Nine O'Clock News", he gives us the full account of his time at the BBC, discusses his relationship with top politicians, and offers his thoughts on television journalism and the impact of the politics today. Peppered with anecdotes and spiced with controversial insights into the workings of today's press, "Inside Track" shows us what it's really like to be a journalist stalking the corridors of power.