Margaret (2009) (TV)

Director:

James Kent

Writer:

Richard Cottan (written by)

Release Date:

26 February 2009 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Margaret Thatcher's final days as Prime Minister of Britain. |

Plot Keywords:

Britain | Prime Minister | One Word Title | King Of England | Queen Elizabeth II

Cast

Roger Allam	...	John Wakeham
Roger Ashton-Griffiths	...	John Sergeant
Charlotte Asprey	...	Caroline Stephens
Elizabeth Bennett	...	Sue Mastriforte
Martin Chamberlain	...	Nigel Lawson
Michael Cochrane	...	Alan Clark
Oliver Cotton	...	Michael Heseltine
Alan Cox	...	Gordon Reece
Dermot Crowley	...	Airey Neave
Nicholas Day	...	Cranley Onslow
Lindsay Duncan	...	Margaret Thatcher
Julian Firth	...	Norman Lamont
James Fox	...	Charles Powell
Robert Hardy	...	Willie Whitelaw
Guy Henry	...	Tristan Garel-Jones

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Langley Park, Slough, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Great Meadow Productions

Trivia:

Philip Jackson (Bernard Ingram) and Michael Cochrane (Alan Clark) both appeared in an earlier BBC political drama entitled Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008) (TV), to which this production is an indirect sequel. They played Alf Roberts, the father of the title character, and Sir Waldron Smithers respectively.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Throughout the film any time a telephone rang a soft electronic warble ring was used. Yet all telephones seen throughout the production are BT/GPO standard issue (of the day) Type 706's which had a mechanical bell ringer.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "De wereld draait door: (#4.110)" (2009)

the last days in power of the Iron Lady

This dramatisation of the events leading up to Margaret Thatcher's fall from power in November 1990, including a few jumps back in time to 1975 when she beat Ted Heath to the Tory leadership, benefits from a good and controlled central performance by Lindsay Duncan, plus entertaining caricatures of other leading politicians of the time (John Sessions as Geoffrey Howe, Roy Marsden as Norman Tebbit, Oliver Cotton as Michael Heseltine, Roger Allam as John Wakeham, Robert Hardy as Willie Whitelaw, Michael Maloney as John Major, etc., plus Rosemary Leach as The Queen), but is ultimately too detached to present real interest or engagement with its subject.

In newspaper reviews the drama was reviled for presenting Mrs Thatcher in too sympathetic a light, but I think even here it fails - she shuts out her children, only thinks of herself - especially in one staggering speech showing her hungry for power and 'damn the party' - and has an awkward relationship with her long-suffering husband Denis (Ian MacDiarmid). This is not the portrayal of a woman who we can recognise or empathise with. In fact she is presented as a self-made monster who believes her own publicity and can't face up to reality.

Whether all this bears any resemblance to the truth is a moot point. 'Margaret' is worth watching, but does not pass as entertainment, or as anything other than a snapshot of its time, relevant only when events presented remain in living memory.