Michael Cockerell

Michael Roger Lewis Cockerell (born 26 August 1940) is a British broadcaster and journalist.

Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Cockerell is the BBC's most established political documentary maker, with a long, Emmy award-winning career of political programmes spanning television and radio. For some years a reporter on the current affairs programme, Panorama, he now specialises in in-depth documentaries on the politics and players of Westminster. Most notably, he has made biographical profiles of Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Alan Clark, Barbara Castle, Roy Jenkins, Michael Howard and David Cameron.

Over the last decade, he has made a series of other documentaries. Among them are the How to Be trilogy (How to Be Chancellor, How to Be Foreign Secretary, How to Be Home Secretary); a three-part series on the history of Anglo-American, Anglo-German and Anglo-French relations; an observational documentary on the workings of Alastair Campbell's press office in News from Number 10; and a three-part analysis of Tony Blair's 10 years in office as Prime Minister. Also he has presented a programme on How to be an ex Prime Minister, broadcast just before Blair's resignation.

One of Cockerell's recent series for the BBC is The Great Offices of State.^[1] It is a behind-the-scenes look at the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and the UK Treasury, three of the UK's Great Offices of State. This was followed by the 2011 series The Secret World of Whitehall.

In the run-up to the May 2010 elections, Cockerell released a documentary entitled How to Win the TV Debate in which he prophetically revealed the importance of Britain's first television debates in the outcome of the general election. The programme featured candid interviews with US presidents and their advisers on the tricks of the debate trade.

Cockerell has interviewed eight Prime Ministers - more than any other reporter in British political broadcasting. Prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he interviewed Tony Blair for his documentary on Britain's relationship with the United States, Hotline to the President. That interview was widely reported on the front pages of British newspapers when Tony Blair accepted that the need to sustain the transatlantic 'special relationship' meant a willingness to 'pay the blood price'.

Michael was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of East Anglia in 2007.

Family

He first married 1970 (div 1981) Anne Christine Adriane Faber (1944-28 November 2002), eldest child and only daughter of Julian Faber and his wife Lady Caroline Faber née Macmillan, a daughter of Harold Macmillan. They had one son and one daughter. He then married 1984 (div by 1991) Bridget Alexandra Heathcoat-Amory (b. 21 May 1952), daughter of Brigadier Roderick Heathcoat-Amory and his wife Sonia Myrtle Heathcoat-Amory, née Denison. His second wife was full sister of the Tory MP David Heathcoat-Amory, and sister-in-law of the 6th Earl Cairns;^[2] they had two more daughters.^[3]

He has three more daughters with his partner Anna Lloyd, whom he married in August 2011.

Cockerell's family includes two siblings, six daughters, one son and four grandchildren. He lives in Notting Hill with his partner Anna Lloyd and their three daughters.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

1. ^ Michael Cockerell (reporter) (14 February 2010). The Great Offices of State. BBC Four. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qtpj1. Retrieved 2010-02-14. 
2. ^ "Sonia Myrtle Denison". Retrieved 10 April 2009.
3. ^ "Bridget Alexandra Heathcoat-Amory". Retrieved 10 April 2009. Bridget's elder half-sister is Amanda Mary Heathcoat-Amory (b. 1944), who married the 6th Earl Cairns in 1964, and has issue, three sons.

External links

• Journalisted - Articles by Michael Cockerell

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Name	Cockerell, Michael
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Date of birth	26 August 1940
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