The Deal

The Deal is a 2003 British television film directed by Stephen Frears from a script by Peter Morgan, based in part upon The Rivals by James Naughtie. The film stars David Morrissey as Gordon Brown and Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, and depicts the Blair-Brown deal—a well-documented pact that Blair and Brown made whereby Brown would not stand in the 1994 Labour leadership election, so that Blair could have a clear run at becoming leader of the party and Prime Minister. The film begins on 9 June 1983, as Blair and Brown are first elected to Parliament, and concludes in May 1994 at the Granita restaurant—the location of the supposed agreement—with a brief epilogue following the leadership contest.

The film was first proposed by Morgan in late 2002 and was taken on by Granada Television for ITV. After Frears agreed to direct, and the cast were signed on, ITV pulled out of it over fears that the political sensitivity could affect its corporate merger. Channel 4 picked up the production and filming was carried out for five weeks in May 2003. The film was broadcast on 28 September 2003, the weekend prior to the Labour Party's annual party conference.

The film was critically lauded. Morrissey received considerable praise, winning a Royal Television Society award for playing Brown, and Frears was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television Movie/Serial by the Directors Guild of Great Britain. The film also nominated for an International Emmy for Best TV Movie/Miniseries. Sheen later reunited with Morgan, Frears, and producer Christine Langan in 2006 to reprise his role as Blair in The Queen, that depicts the death of Princess Diana on 31 August 1997. Sheen reprised his role once again in 2010 in The Special Relationship, that chronicles the "special relationship" between Blair and US President Bill Clinton up until the September 11 attacks, and was broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom and HBO in North America.