Michael Roger Lewis Cockerell (born 26 August 1940) is a British broadcaster and journalist. He is the BBC's most established political documentary maker, with a long, Emmy award-winning career of political programmes spanning television and radio.

Early life and education

Michael Roger Lewis Cockerell was born on 26 August 1940. His father was Professor Hugh Anthony Lewis Cockerell, OBE, Secretary General of the Chartered Insurance Institute, a professor who was an expert on insurance law, and his mother, Fanny Cockerell (née Jochelman), was an author and playwright, and daughter of Dr David Salomon Jochelman, a prominent leader of the British Jewish community. He was educated at Kilburn Grammar School, Heidelberg University and Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (receiving a BA in 1962, and an MA in 1968).

Career

From 1962 to 1966, Cockerell worked as a magazine journalist. He then joined the BBC Africa service, working as a producer there from 1966 to 1968. From 1968 to 1987, Cockerell worked in the BBC's Current Affairs department. He was initially a producer for the 24 Hours series from 1968 to 1972, from which he moved to being a reporter for Midweek (1972–75). In 1975, he became a reporter on the flagship news series Panorama, where he remained until 1987. That year, he became a freelance television reporter and documentary maker. He has latterly specialised in in-depth documentaries on the politics of Westminster. He has made biographical profiles of Margaret Thatcher (The Making of the Iron Lady, 2008), Edward Heath (Sir Ted: A Film Portrait of Edward Heath, 2005), Alan Clark, Barbara Castle, Roy Jenkins (A Very Social Democrat: A Portrait of Roy Jenkins, 1996), Michael Howard, David Cameron, Denis Healey (The Best Prime Minister Labour Never Had?, 2015) and most recently, Boris Johnson (The Irresistible Rise). From the 1970s onwards, his work for television has included How We Fell For Europe (2005), The Lost World of the Seventies (2012), The Marketing of Margaret Thatcher (1983), Blair's Thousand Days – The Lady and the Lords (2000), Life in Whips Office (1995), Inside 10 Downing Street (2000) and Cabinet Confidential (2001). He has also made multi-part series', among them the How to Be trilogy (How to Be Chancellor, 2010, How to Be Foreign Secretary, 1998 and How to Be Home Secretary, 1999); 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. He also followed up the How to Be series, with How to Be Ex Prime Minister (2007), broadcast just before Blair's resignation. The programme was repeated upon the departure from office of Theresa May in 2019. Cockerell's 2010 series The Great Offices of State was 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. He also made the four-part series Inside the Commons for the BBC, broadcast in 2015, for which had sought permission for six years. In the run-up to the May 2010 election, Cockerell was responsible for a documentary entitled How to Win the TV Debate, in which he discussed 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 debate strategy. 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 a 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 Blair accepted that the need to sustain the transatlantic 'special relationship' meant a willingness to 'pay the blood price'. Cockerell has contributed shorter profiles to Newsnight, such as Who is Ed Miliband? and Theresa May's legacy. Alongside his television work, Cockerell has also been responsible for several BBC Radio 4 documentaries, including The Trial of David Irving, about the court case involving Holocaust denier David Irving (2004) and Tales from the Cutting Room (2006). Cockerell contributed Profile episodes on Conrad Black (2007, 2010) and Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin (2008). Since 2011, Cockerell has been visiting professor of Politics at Nottingham University. He became a visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1998, and carried out the same role at Nuffield College, Oxford, from 2001 to 2004. In 2000, Cockerell delivered the Huw Wheldon Lecture for BBC Two. He has been a consultant to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography since 2000. In 2021, Cockerell's book, Unmasking Our Leaders: Confessions of a Political Documentary-Maker, was published by Biteback, to acclaim from reviewers.

Personal life

Cockerell has been married three times and has seven children. He first married Anne Christine Adriane Faber (1944–28 November 2002) in 1970; they divorced in 1980. Faber was the eldest child and only daughter of Julian Faber and his wife Lady Caroline Faber (née Macmillan), a daughter of Harold Macmillan. Cockerell and Faber had one son and one daughter. His second marriage, in 1984, was to Bridget Alexandra Heathcoat-Amory (born 21 May 1952), daughter of Brigadier Roderick Heathcoat-Amory and his wife Sonia Myrtle Heathcoat-Amory (née Denison). Cockerell and Heathcoat-Amory had two daughters. In 1990, they divorced. In 2011, Cockerell married BBC producer Anna Lloyd, with whom he has three daughters; the couple live in Notting Hill. He lists his recreations in Who's Who as cricket, tennis and "merry-making". He is a playing member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, as well being a member of the Lord’s Taverners and the Bushmen Cricket Club.

Awards and honours

Cockerell won an Emmy Award in 1980 for the Panorama episode "Who Killed Georgi Markov?". Cockerell has also been awarded the Royal Television Society's Best Documentary Award (1982), the Golden Nymph Award in Monte Carlo (1988), the Judges' Award for Special Contribution to Politics at the Political Studies Association (2008), and the James Cameron Special Award (2010). In 2011, Cockerell was made an honorary fellow of his alma mater, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of East Anglia in 2007.

Filmography

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s