With Meryl Streep getting ready to hit the big screen as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady later this year, it seems appropriate that the BBC release The Rise and Fall of Margaret Thatcher, a two DVD set containing three excellent BBC productions that never found a TV home here in the States.
The first, Margaret: The Long Walk to Finchley, stars Andrea Riseborough as a young Margaret Roberts. Maggie is working as a chemist on a project to pump air into ice-cream to make it go further, and plotting how to get a seat in Parliament. “There’d be no milk shortage if I was in charge,” declares the future Prime Minister, her tones already clipped. “Every child in the country would have as much milk as they wanted. That would be my promise” (later, as Education secretary, Thatcher would stop free school milk).
The Long Walk to Finchley dramatizes Thatcher’s ten-year struggle to find a winnable Conservative seat. Her first attempt at a seat came in 1949, Just 23, the unmarried Margaret set off to Dartford to run as a candidate for the first time. Though she lost, the experience provided her with an opportunity to meet the quiet, introspective candidate Ted Heath (wonderfully played by Samuel West), and her future husband, Denis (Rory Kinnear).
Here, Thatcher’s actual political views are insignificant. Instead, the focus is on her station in life and her status as a female. The Long Walk to Finchley dramatizes her battle against numerous roadblocks: finding a constituency that didn’t want a war hero as its prospective parliamentary candidate, and didn’t automatically assume that the only place for a woman was in the home. At several points in the tele-film, she is seen giving speeches to selection committees on various big picture issues—the Red menace, trade unions—but it was always very clear that the constituency politicos weren’t interested in these things—their questions were about potholes and other local issues, if the fact that she was a female was avoided. Clearly, as viewers, we are supposed to appreciate the fact that she has unshakable conviction and isn’t afraid to stand up to the old matrons who can’t see beyond her sex.
A dramatization of of events leading up to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982 and the Thatcher government’s response to it, The Falklands Play was commissioned by the BBC in 1986, then shelved until 2002, allegedly because of its pro-Margaret Thatcher bias ahead of a general election. The play definitely provides an interesting view of how international relations work. Thatcher (Patricia Hodge) is portrayed as a straight talking, passionate, forceful leader.
Along with Thatcher, General Galtieri and US Secretary of State Alexander Haig (Colin Stinton) are all major factors in the story, with Thatcher gaining a lot of respect by standing up to Galtieri who was perceived as a big bully. She gives short shrift to American proposals to broker a peace based on a reassessment of the Falkland Islands’ sovereignty. Not knowing much about the event, I can’t say whether Thatcher handled things well. No matter, the whole point of this tele-play is that Margaret Thatcher refused to back down.
In a couple of scenes, Hodge actually shows Thatcher’s softer side. She shows frustration over being forced to order the sinking of the Argentine Cruiser ‘General Belgrano’, (formerly the American Cruiser USS Phoenix CL-46, a ship that had survived the Pearl Harbor attack nearly forty years earlier). She openly weeps upon hearing news of the HMS Sheffield being hit by an Exocet anti-ship missile; she was unable to sleep, worried about stranded marines in South. Of course, these emotional moments occur behind closed doors, as the public Thatcher remains stoic and unshakable.
The third tele-film in this set, Margaret aims to offer a behind-the-scenes look at Margaret Thatcher’s (Lindsay Duncan) last days in power. At the dawn of the 90’s, Thatcher finds herself under fire courtesy of some in her own party. Though desperate to remain in power, the nail in her coffin seems to come when Geoffrey Howe (John Sessions) resigns, leaving office with a stinging speech directed her way. While Michael Heseltine (Oliver Cotton) is obviously trying to establish himself as the next Prime Minister, it soon becomes clear that Maggie might not be able to trust even her closest advisors. Oddly, the man who would replace her, John Major (Michael Maloney) is reduced to a whispering figure on the periphery of events, recovering from tooth surgery.
As it becomes clear she will lose power, Margaret’s inability to hide weaknesses from her husband Denis (Ian McDiarmid) is rather moving. As she faces a life outside of politics, it becomes clear that Thatcher had considered such a possibility; she had no hobbies and her relationship with her twins was cursory at best. It’s actually quite a sad moment when she realizes her keys for the personal office at 10 Downing Street no longer work.
With a great performance by Duncan, as a tone that’s more dramatic than reverential, Margaret is an interesting look at the end of an era in British politics. As a whole, the three films contained on The Rise and Fall of Margaret Thatcher DVD set is worthwhile viewing for anyone with an interest in British politics.
The two disc DVD set is 16:9 enhanced. All three films look quite good for standard definition material. Colors are quite good and pixilation is minimal. While it cant be compared to HD, it serves the material well. The Dolby Digital soundtrack also serves the films very well.
English SDH subtitles are available.
