THE TWO PRINCES (BLAIR AND BROWN: THE NEW LABOUR REVOLUTION)

It's sometimes easy to forget the lure of a politician who succeeds in reaching the highest office in the land.

Their career inevitably is defined by how they exercise power and often one bad decision can overshadow every achievement.

Tony Blair is a textbook example of this.

Blair was the Prime Minister who delivered significant constitutional change through the creation of the devolved Assemblies in Northern Ireland and Wales and the Scottish Parliament.

His Government introduced the minimum wage, tax credits, a Civil Partnership Act for gay and lesbian couples, the Human Rights Act, the Freedom of Information Act and was a key player in the forging of the Good Friday Agreement which saw unionists and nationalists finally share power in Northern Ireland after decades of bitter conflict.

A polished TV performer, he delivered Labour three unprecedented General Election victories in a row.

However he would not be forgiven on the left for his alliance with US President George W Bush and leading the UK into the invasion of Iraq on the back of an unproven claim that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

When he inherited the Premiership from Tony Blair, Gordon Brown cut a surly figure on TV and struggled against a Blair-like Conservative in the form of David Cameron.

Brown, though, came into his own as Prime Minister, marshalling the international effort to stabilise the economy after the 2008 financial crisis.

However he narrowly failed to deliver a fourth Labour election victory and extend his time in 10 Downing Street.

Almost 25 years on from New Labour's breakthrough election victory, BBC2's five part documentary 'Blair and Brown: The New Labour Revolution' catalogues the ascendancy in the party of the two friends and the eventual fracturing of their relationship.

A veritable Who's Who of Labour grandees are interviewed from former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to former Business, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson and fellow ministers Clare Short, Patricia Hewitt, Douglas Alexander and John Reid.

Key aides like Blair's Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell, spin doctor Alistair Campbell, Charlie Whelan, Ed Balls, Anji Hunter, Sue Nye and Tom Kelly are also interviewed along with former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

What you get is a frank and, at times, gripping account of how the New Labour project emerged from the ashes of two General Election defeats under Neil Kinnock, caught the imagination of the British public and then quickly soured.

Blair and Brown were seen as the architects of New Labour, although the third musketeer Peter Mandelson voices his suspeciin that the former was much more committed to the New Labour concept and the latter more attached to the Old.

Directed by Katharine English, Steve Condie and Pamela Gordon from the team that brought viewers 'Thatcher: A Very British Revolution', it does a good job like its predecessor mixing anecdotal accounts with big picture political developments.

However it also rather frustratingly glosses over or ignores some significant moments like the departure of Alistair Campbell halfway through the Hutton Inquiry into the War in Iraq or the sidelining of Mo Mowlam after the spontaneous and affectionate standing ovation she received during Blair's speech at the 1998 Labour Party conference.

The first episode is particularly effective in capturing the rise of Brown as one of a new breed of ambitious Labour MP that includes Blair.

The impression it creates is of Blair riding the coattails of a very able friend whose stock rose during the Kinnock era, standing in impressively for his mentor John Smith after the Shadow Chancellor's heart attack.

It is Brown who guides Blair on how to make a stirring Labour Party conference speech and when Smith becomes leader, it is they who drive a desire to learn from the US Democrats how they won over the centre ground in the 1992 race for the White House, much to the annoyance of Smith's camp.

Former UK Ambassador to the US, Sir Christopher Meyer tells the documentary makers that watching them in action during that trip he was struck by Blair's ability to work a room while Brown sat there, absorbing all the detail.

Observing that Tony Blair felt more like a US style politician, he boldly claims: "If God had picked up Tony Blair and put him into the American political system, Blair could have become President of the United States."

If Brown comes across in the first episode as providing the intellectual heft that was instrumental in shaping New Labour's policy on the socio-economic issues that wooed the middle ground and middle England, Blair comes across in it and in subsequent episodes as the polished opportunist with the killer instinct his friend lacks.

The pivotal moment comes for Brown early on when he balks at taking on his mentor John Smith after Neil Kinnock's departure as Labour leader following a devastating fourth successive loss in the 1992 General Election.

For Blair and Mandelson, this is the time for the New Labour reformers to make their mark with Brown as their standard bearer.

However Brown wilts under pressure from John Smith.

Following John Smith's tragic fatal heart attack in May 1994 as Leader of the Opposition, Blair subsequently outmanoeuvres a distraught, still grieving Brown and for a second time his leadership ambitions are forced off the road.

Although the series touches briefly on claims that a deal was struck that would see Blair serve two terms as Prime Minister and Brown getting unprecedented control over economic policy as Chancellor, it never really confirms the story of a pact in the Granita Restaurant in Islington.

Mandelson observes that following Blair's power grab, Brown "went through immense hurt - at first disbelief, [and was] almost inconsolable."

But as the series wears on, the sense is of a politician eager to flex his muscle within government while biding his time, with the former Home Secretary John Reid claiming "the Prince couldn't wait for the King to die."

The early departure of Mandelson from government over an undeclared home loan from a party colleague and then the resignation of Brown's spokesman Charlie Whelan after catching Downing Street unaware with an announcement that the Chancellor would not be leading the UK into the single currency mark early skirmishes between the two camps.

Blair's deft handling of public anger over the Royal Family's reaction to the death of Princess Diana and the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement boost his Premiership.

And while he initially rides the crest of the wave of Cool Britannia popularity to re-election in 2001, the defining moment comes after the 9/11 attacks and his fixation with sticking by a US adminstration no matter what - even one as militarily hawkish as President George W Bush's.

Faced with deep scepticism from US Vice President Dick Cheney about securing UN backing for military operations in Iraq and unable to deliver it, Blair's willingness to run alongside a Republican administration mounting an invasion in spite of no evidence of Saddam Hussein having s nuclear capability and no plan to reconstruct the country, proves disastrous for the Middle East and ultimately his Premiership.

The coup de grace comes after Blair wins a third term in office with a reduced majority and a more rebellious set of MPs.

However by the time Brown ascends to the throne in Downing Street, he looks jaded and less polished than Blair and also the leader of the Opposition who will eventually defeat him, David Cameron.

While his astute handling of the 2008 financial crisis on the domestic and world stage earns him international kudos, his lack of polish costs him extending his time in 10 Downing Street as Cameron's Tories and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats strike a coalition deal in 2010.

Even here 'Blair and Brown: The New Labour Revolution' exasperates in its approach - omitting Brown's embarrassing gaffe during the 2010 election of being caught on microphone calling a party supporter on the campaign trail a bigot.

Clegg's game changing performance in the first TV debate of the campaign is also surprisingly ignored - even though it made the Liberal Democrats an attractive alternative to swing voters who were tired of Labour but still suspicious of the Tories.

Nevertheless, its account and images of the outgoing Labour Government in Downing Street holding a wake for New Labour with Mandelson and Campbell joining Brown and Alexander to share stories are fascinating.

The five part series undoubtedly benefits from having its two principal figures among those interviewed.

And for students of British politics and the left, it is undoubtedly compelling - even if you feel it doesn't quite reach the heights of the Thatcher documentary.

At one point, Douglas Alexander claims that  Blair and Brown were "the Lennon and McCartney of British politics."

Watching this series chart the rancour that developed while they were in government, you're not so sure.

Their relationship feels much more like Simon and Garfunkel's.

('Blair and Brown: The New Labour Revolution' was broadcast on BBC2 from October 4-November 1, 2021)

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