Check the behind the scenes section, the revision history and discussion page for additional comments on this article's title.
A man named Clarke was a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. According to the Eighth Doctor, he immediately succeeded Tony Blair. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)
Behind the scenes[]
Clarke's forename wasn't given in Interference, but the common-sense interpretation of the passage is that author Lawrence Miles was referencing the real-life Conservative politician Kenneth Clarke. (However, it's also possible that the reference was to Charles Clarke.)
In real life, Clarke contested the Conservative Party leadership in 1997, 2001, and 2005 but never became Conservative Party leader or Prime Minister.
If Clarke really did follow Blair in the DWU, he'd logically have had to have been the party leader instead of Michael Howard and won the 2005 election. However, it was later established that Tony Blair was the PM in the early 2000s, such as in the 2006 television story Rise of the Cybermen, among others.
Clarke was played by Roland Oliver in Thatcher: The Final Days and Kevin McNally in Margaret.
|