Blair on trial for Iraq human rights abuses... but it's just a TV drama

This is Tony Blair as he would never want you to see him - a humbled war criminal facing trial for human rights abuses in Iraq.

Robert Lindsay is to play Mr Blair in a TV drama set in an imagined near future, struggling to cope with life after leaving Downing Street.

The controversial Channel 4 film, to be screened in January, will show him as the now ex-Prime Minister accused of violating international law.

And embarrassingly for the New Labour establishment, the man behind the darkly comic tale is the stepson of Mr Blair's most loyal Cabinet ally. Television producer Hal Vogel, 35, is the son of Home Secretary John Reid's second wife, Brazilian film-maker Carine Adler.

Mr Vogel also produced last year's Bafta-winning TV satire A Very Social Secretary, which lampooned David Blunkett's romance with Kimberly Quinn and led to Mr Blunkett threatening legal action.

Mr Vogel's company, Mentorn, is now planning a third work, Prezza, about Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's extramarital affairs.

A TV source said: "The Trial Of Tony Blair will be a much darker tale than the Blunkett film. We will see a brooding, depressed Tony Blair obsessed by his legacy and the fallout from Iraq."

Set in a time before the next General Election, with Gordon Brown now Prime Minister and Hillary Clinton the US President, the drama also depicts Tony Blair's home life after he stands down.

He is nagged by Cherie, played by Phoebe Nicholls, about carpet swatches in their London retirement home in Connaught Square - where, among the 'objets d'art', are a 6ft cast of the Statue Of Liberty and an oil painting of Margaret Thatcher.

And he is shown considering converting to Catholicism ahead of the trial, saying: "I can get a reference from the Pope."

The script is by Alistair Beaton, who also wrote A Very Social Secretary. He said: "I gather Mr Blair is very concerned about his place in history. This film is my idea of where that place might be. Whether it's fiction or prediction remains to be seen."

Mr Vogel also produced the acclaimed satire Sven: The Cash, The Coach And His Lovers, which pilloried former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Mr Vogel's mother is herself an award winner, most notably for her intense, erotic feature Under The Skin, starring Samantha Morton.

Carine married Mr Reid in 2002 following the death of his first wife, Cathie.