In this episode of the BBC Radio 4 series, Archive on 4, our very own Tristan Redman tells the story of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise and fall.

The former French President was jailed last year for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with money from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. He’s currently appealing his sentence. And he has some powerful supporters.

Using archive recordings and contemporary interviews with those who know Sarkozy well, Tristan Redman tells the story of how he became the first former French head of state to end up behind bars since Nazi collaborator, Philippe Pétain.

Featuring investigative journalist, Fabrice Arfi from Mediapart; Daniele Klein whose brother was killed in the ‘French Lockerbie’ and her niece Melanie who lost her father; Alain Minc, one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s closest friends and advisers; the British writer and academic Andrew Hussey and Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, who was Sarkozy’s finance minister.

Presenter: Tristan Redman

Producer: Adele Armstrong

Sound: Peregrine Andrews

Editor: Penny Murphy

Credits: Mediapart, Euronews, France Télévisions, TF1 and France 2