Margaret (2009 film)

Margaret is a 2009 television film produced by Great Meadow Productions for the BBC. It was first broadcast on 26 February 2009 on BBC Two. It was made by the same production company as the 2008 television film The Long Walk to Finchley, which fictionalised the start of Thatcher's political career.

Margaret is a fictionalisation of the life of Margaret Thatcher (played by Lindsay Duncan) and her fall from the premiership in the 1990 leadership election, with flashbacks telling the story of Thatcher's defeat of Edward Heath in the 1975 leadership election.^[1]

On 9 April 2008, it was announced that Duncan was to play Thatcher, and filming commenced in the summer of that year.

Hardy, Fox, Vansittart and Cochrane had all appeared in the 2002 TV production of The Falklands Play, by Ian Curteis, about an earlier period in Thatcher's premiership; although many political figures were featured in both films, none of the four actors played the same roles in both.

Allam, Cochrane, Jones and Sessions would go on to appear in the 2011 film The Iron Lady about Thatcher's rise to power, relationship with her husband, and life after politics.

The Guardian critic praised the "deft casting" and stated that the flashbacks were "illuminating and sometimes entertaining" and that some episodes in the drama were "wholly imaginary and thoroughly un-Thatcherite, but ... [hang] around the mind like cigar smoke".^[2]

It is currently available for purchase in the UK.

• Thatcher: The Final Days, a 1991 film also depicting the final days of Thatcher's premiership
• The Iron Lady, a 2011 film about Thatcher
• Cultural depictions of Margaret Thatcher

• Margaret at BBC Online
• Margaret at IMDb
• White, Michael (17 February 2009). "The lady's not for turning off: Drama shows the chinks in Thatcher's armour". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2009.
• Aaronovitch, David (23 February 2008). "Portillo on Thatcher as Tory pin-up". The Times. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2008.
• Holmwood, Leigh (29 May 2008). "A Free Country: BBC lines up new series by Tony Saint". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 June 2008.
• Marcus, Sarah (28 April 2008). "Lindsay Duncan to play Margaret Thatcher". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2008.