35 Facts About Brian Walden

Alastair Brian Walden was a British journalist and broadcaster who spent over a decade as a Labour politician and Member of Parliament.

Brian Walden was considered one of the finest political interviewers in the history of British broadcasting, tenacious and ruthless.

Brian Walden won awards for broadcasting including the BAFTA Richard Dimbleby Award for television in 1986, and in 1991 was named ITV Personality of the Year.

Brian Walden was known for interviews of politicians, especially Margaret Thatcher.

Brian Walden was said to be her favourite interviewer, although he gave her tough interviews.

Brian Walden won an open scholarship to study history at The Queen's College, Oxford.

Brian Walden began a doctorate at Nuffield College, Oxford about Lord Randolph Churchill; however, he never finished it.

Brian Walden unsuccessfully contested the safe Conservative constituency of Oswestry in the 1961 by-election, coming third for Labour.

At a debate at the Oxford Union held on 11 June 1964, Brian Walden caused uproar by calling Lord Beaverbrook, who had died two days previously, "evil and repellent" and for attacking the "evil and despicable influence" of his Express group of newspapers.

At the 1964 general election Brian Walden was elected MP for Birmingham All Saints in an election where race dominated the Birmingham campaign.

Brian Walden was re-elected in the general elections of 1966 and 1970.

In January 1970, Brian Walden introduced his unsuccessful private member's bill, the Right of Privacy Bill, which was designed to protect people's right to privacy from the press.

At a December 1973 meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on the party's state, Brian Walden doubted whether party unity and getting policies across to the public would alone suffice.

Brian Walden called Heath's belief that the election was called to ensure moderation "the most staggering misjudgment of my political lifetime".

The Selly Oak Constituency Labour Party passed a resolution criticising his "massive consultancy fees", which Brian Walden earned as a parliamentary consultant to, among others, the Business Equipment Trades Association, the Amusement Trades Association and the Amusement Caterers Association.

Brian Walden opened the debate by opposing capital punishment and declaring it to be "judicial execution" and "a cold-blooded act of the state to take a life".

Brian Walden became disillusioned with the Labour Party by the rise of the left and in May 1975, after Margaret Thatcher was elected Conservative leader, told Conservative Chief Whip Humphrey Atkins that he could bring six Labour MPs with him in crossing the floor.

At a meeting of the Warley East Labour Party in February 1976, Brian Walden defended the government's policy and the benefits of the mixed economy against Stuart Holland's proposals for more socialist policies.

In November 1976, Brian Walden joined the fellow right-wing Labour MP John Mackintosh in abstaining on the vote for the government's Dock Works Regulation Bill and thereby wrecked its passage through Parliament.

Brian Walden campaigned for the liberalisation of cannabis and gambling laws.

Brian Walden was nicknamed by some "the bookies' MP" when he was revealed to be receiving more from the National Association of Bookmakers than his parliamentary salary.

On 16 June 1977, Brian Walden resigned from the House of Commons by taking the Chiltern Hundreds to become a full-time journalist and broadcaster.

Brian Walden was a member of the board of Central Television between 1981 and 1984.

In 1978, Brian Walden told Conservative MP Bernard Weatherill that "the only way the Tories can lose the next general election is if they are not Conservative enough".

The week after this conversation, Brian Walden's programme focused on the necessity of legislation against secondary action by trade unions.

Brian Walden wrote Thatcher's speech to the Wembley rally during the 1983 general election campaign.

Many journalists deserted the paper, but Brian Walden lent it his support by becoming one of its senior columnists.

Brian Walden told Thatcher's confidante Woodrow Wyatt on the day Lawson resigned that he wanted Wyatt to ask Thatcher what questions he should put to her so that he could phrase them in a helpful way.

In 1998 Brian Walden presented a series of essays on prominent figures, giving his own take, uninterrupted and directly to camera, on Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, John F Kennedy, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

In 2005, Brian Walden presented 10-minute programmes, A Point of View, on BBC Radio 4, in a spot formerly occupied by Alistair Cooke's Letter From America.

Brian Walden was the subject of parody in Spitting Image as a puppet with a slight speech impediment, voiced by impressionist Steve Nallon.

Brian Walden was married three times; to Sybil Blackstone, Jane McKerron, then Hazel Downes.

Brian Walden had four sons, including the actor Ben Walden.

Brian Walden opposed the ban on fox-hunting, and was a strong supporter of Brexit.

Brian Walden died on 9 May 2019 aged 86 at his home in Guernsey from complications connected to emphysema.