The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson review: A remarkably indiscreet documentary that puts the boot in

Johnson is “one of those people who makes you laugh, while at the same time he's sticking the boot in”, Duncan Smith said. Also a pretty accurate summation of what the blond, blustering Old Etonian did to the country.

The first two parts of this documentary series have so far shown us the rise of ‘Brand Boris’, a tale of privilege, networking and a seemingly blithe belief that he was meant to become someone powerful.

A tale in which sackings, back-stabbings and bed-hoppings make barely a dent in Johnson’s progress to the halls of power.

Aided by a media only too keen to be taken in by his bumbling, toff with a touch of the common man persona, the documentary shows how Johnson's dissembling came to him from an early age.

Virtually deaf until the age of eight, Johnson is shown confessing he “had to feign a certain ignorance of everything”, a trait which seems to have stood him in good stead.

By the end of the first two episodes, in fact, you can’t help feeling the Johnson feigns pretty much everything in life. He feigns fidelity, loyalty, commitment to a cause, all in service of his own career – a career The Rise and Fall... suggests has happened almost by accident.

According to the many insiders interviewed here – as well as Duncan Smith, there's his former mistress Petronella Wyatt, family friends, his closest advisors and political adversaries – he doesn't seem to have expected anything.