Alastair Campbell

Labour spin doctors have nothing to fear from the BBC's new political drama, according to its commissioner.

Ahead of this weekend's screening of The Project, the BBC's controller of drama, Jane Tranter, rejected claims that it is about key members of New Labour.

The Project is a two-part drama, starting on November 10, focusing on the lives of four Labour Party activists in the build up to the 1997 election victory and what happened in the years that followed.

In an exclusive interview with ePolitix.com, Tranter said the film was not about the key architects of New Labour such as Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson.

She also denied that the film was based on people who were working in Labour's media team at the time.

"It's easy to see why media would focus on them but The Project doesn't do that. And we haven't indulged in saying 'isn't it disgusting the way Labour treats the media' either," said Tranter.

"There's no smoking gun in this piece because we simply didn't find one. We're not exposing sleaze; it's much subtler than that."

Three years of research went into the making of the film and the idea was driven by writers rather than TV bosses.

"There was quite a lot of enthusiasm among the creative community to do a political drama as many writers see themselves as the voice of opposition," she said."There isn't a strong political voice of opposition to the government at the moment and writers feel they can fill that void."

The BBC chief said the change in presentation and emphasis on personalities made Labour a good basis for a drama.

"New Labour have made politics sexy," she said.

"The media comments on them the whole time and it's not in the sleazy sense but we know what one person thinks of another and who likes who.

"There's also the fact that it's a government who are like us, who look like us and they're young."

Tranter was also keen to dispel comparisons with the cult American political drama The West Wing which has been a major success on both sides of the Atlantic.

"The Project is not like that at all. The West Wing is set at the very heart of American government. This isn't about the people at the centre it follows the lives of four very, very junior members of the Labour Party," she said.

Tranter warned that repeating the American formula is difficult because Americans have a less cynical view of politics than Britons and the format would be difficult to repeat.

"The West Wing is a popular returning drama. It's like listening to your favourite song; it's got a rhythm to it and the scenes have bits that you want to see again and again and again."

She hoped the programme would repeat the success of previous BBC political dramas and believed the timing for The Project was right.

"House of Cards - which was really a satire - and GBH were the last big dramas but that was an awfully long time ago," Tranter said.

"As a commissioner I wanted a resolutely forward-looking, bold drama for the 21st century. The themes of history are absolutely fascinating and drama can look at recent history in a different way to a documentary."

Though this series ends several years into Blair's first term in office, Tranter did not rule out more instalments.

"Our thinking changed as we were making it. In 1999 when we started we were just going to do one film," she said.

"As the research began things got more interesting. There are no plans at the moment to go on but it's a 'maybe'. Never say never."