Nixon

A cinematic guide to Watergate

This June will mark half a century since police arrested five of Richard Nixon’s ‘plumbers’ breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices in Washington DC’s Watergate complex. This anniversary appears to have given TV executives the impetus to commission a wave of shows about the break in and its world-changing (if not an overstatement) after-effects. Both upcoming drama Gaslit (STARZ, from April 24th) and Netflix’s documentary The Martha Mitchell Effect concern the outspoken spouse of Nixon’s loyal Attorney General John N. Mitchell, who (to her husband’s ire) helped blow the whistle on Watergate. For her efforts, Mitchell was hounded and vilified as a drunk by Nixon’s cronies, with the former President declaring