Exclusive: First review of the Thatcher Movie

This blog is pleased to present the first review of the new Thatcher movie, starring Meryl Streep.  Our guest reviewer is none other than Nigel [now Lord] Lawson, who was the Iron Lady's Chancellor of the Exchequer.

“It is a good film," decalres Lawson in an ES interview after watching a special preview for MPs and peers. "Meryl Streep is a very fine actress and has got Margaret’s personality right and her mannerisms very well. I’ve no doubt she will win an Oscar and good luck to her.”

However he was less enamoured with the way the movie treats the momentous events of the Thatcher years. “It is a huge kind of romantic drama, with a lot about her relationship with Denis, her character and how she outfaced all these men. It is kind of a soap.

“It’s not within a million miles of an accurate account of what the Thatcher government did and what it was about. That’s not what the film is interested in.”

 Lord Lawson, Chancellor from 1983 to 1989, said there were several errors in the film, including the casting of a blonde to play the younger Margaret. “It’s a stupid mistake because everyone knows she wasn’t a blonde - she was a dark brunette and decided later on to become a blonde.”

Aged 79 and an active peer and campaigner, he also disliked the film’s suggestion that dementia was the “great toll that political pressure brings”, adding: “Medically speaking that’s rubbish. And when historians write about the Thatcher government, they are not going to be interested in whether in later life she suffered from dementia. It’s not as though it affected her while she was in office.”

Lord Lawson does not appear in the film, which he said glossed over some key events like how she seized the leadership of the Tory Party. “It’s difficult for me to be dispassionate because I was so much a part of that era and knew her so well.

“For anybody who wants to know about her political life - forget it. Anybody who wants a good drama with a political feel - it’s not bad at all. I would advise them to see it because it is a powerful film.”

Elsewhere in our interview he said he and Lady Thatcher repaired their friendship “in the sense that we would meet each other from time to time and be very friendly and very civil.”

He predicted that Europe will return to growth more quickly if the single currency is broken up and praised David Cameron’s use of the veto last week for “giving notice in the most dramatic way” to other EU leaders that he will stand up for the City’s interests.”

 

Joe Murphy

@JoeMurphyLondon

 

 

Comments

[Allan D]

Does Lady T suffer from dementia? I know she is increasingly frail physically. Certainly Harold Wilson suffered from dementia in the last decade of his life but little reference is made to that and, unlike Lady T, I doubt if the Americans consider his Premiership eventful enough to be made into a Hollywood film.

I wonder what the reaction would be if Hollywood had made a film about Winston Churchill highlighting his infirmity and deafness in retirement. Would that have been explained as "the great toll political pressure brings" or simply the price of longevity? It certainly would have added nothing to our understanding of his wartime leadership.