Party leaders' TV hall of fame

By Brian Wheeler
BBC News political reporter

Charles Kennedy is not the first party leader to be seduced by the giddy allure of light entertainment - and he probably won't be the last.

Mr Blair meets Homer Simpson

The Liberal Democrat leader has signed up to play the Ghost of Christmas Future in a seasonal EastEnders special.

"It's a bit of fun at Christmas," Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather gamely insists.

"There's 16m viewers of this programme - what politician would turn down that opportunity? I guess the others weren't asked."

The tape of Mr Kennedy's performance is being kept under wraps - so as not to spoil the surprise for viewers, the producers say.

But the Lib Dem leader has form for this sort of thing. His appearances on Have I Got News for You earned him the nickname "chat show Charlie".

He is, as The Guardian's Simon Hoggart pointed out on the Today programme, "very much at home in a television studio".

But then most politicians are - the only thing they need is a bigger audience.

'Fun'

Cruelly banished to party political broadcasts and the graveyard slot of late night discussion programmes, they dream of a chance to shine in prime time - in a setting that doesn't scream "politics".

They dream, above all, of ratings.

The thought that they might make a fool of themselves on national television may briefly flicker across their consciousness.

But such fears seem to be quickly banished by the more alluring prospect of appearing in millions of living rooms, striking a good, populist note and showing off their "fun" side.

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock set the gold standard in the early 1980s when he appeared in a pop video with comedienne Tracey Ullman.

Thatcher script

The fresh-faced Kinnock's acting ability was hardly stretched to the limit - he played a Labour politician canvassing for votes.

Mr Kinnock's pop career was short-lived

But the sight of the opposition leader dancing around a council flat as Ms Ullman sang "My Guy's Mad at Me" was indelibly burned on voters' minds - for better or, as it turned out at the next general election, worse.

It is hard to imagine Margaret Thatcher indulging in such frivolity.

Yet the Iron Lady also harboured a secret desire to tread the boards.

She was so taken with her favourite television programme, the BBC sitcom Yes, Prime Minister, that she wrote a sketch based around the characters, with the help of her press secretary Bernard Ingham.

The sketch received its debut at a 1984 charity event, with Mrs Thatcher playing the prime minister to Paul Eddington's Jim Hacker and Nigel Hawthorne's Sir Humphrey.

"We would congratulate the prime minister on taking her rightful place in the field of situation comedy," said one of the show's writers, Jonathan Lynn, afterwards.

Free Deidre

John Major largely eschewed the world of soaps and showbiz during his seven years in Downing Street.

Yes, Prime Minister was Mrs Thatcher's favourite show

Unlike Tony Blair.

In the early days of his premiership he even threw his weight behind The Sun newspaper's Free Deidre Rachid campaign.

The fact that Deidre Rachid was a fictional Coronation Street character, who had got herself locked up for credit card fraud, did not seem to deter the prime minister.

Mr Blair said he was a fan of the Street, describing it as "one of his favourite programmes".

And there was also a family connection.

His late mother-in-law Pat Phoenix played Street legend Elsie Tanner, and the actress occasionally shared a platform with Mr Blair in the early days of his political career.

The prime minister has never been shy of appearing on TV chat shows but has so far resisted the temptation to make a cameo appearance on a British soap.

He did, however, make a brief credibility-boosting appearance on US comedy institution The Simpsons earlier this year, as a jet-booted super-hero.

"Wow, I can't believe we just met Mr Bean," said an awestruck Homer Simpson.

That's show business.