#Margaret Thatcher The Long Walk To Finchley

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The Lovely Lydia Leonard as Joyce in Margaret Thatcher: The Long Road to Finchley (2008).

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Andrea Riseborough and Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes (2017). Andrea was born in Northumberland, England, and has 59 acting credits from a 2005 movie on the telly to two 2023 credits. Both were in Birdman.

Her other notable credits include Venus, Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (a 2008 movie on the telly), Nocturnal Animals, Amsterdam, and To Leslie (her Oscar nomination).

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[mariacallous]

Hey 👋🏼 I’m a new follower and I’m really enjoying your posts about Maggie Thatcher and her ruthless yet ultimately self-destructive politics during her time as PM. Seems to me that there can be no current incarnation of Tory politics (ugh) without Thatcher driving things the way she did. I was only a child at the time and it’s just really interesting to find out all the juicy details after the fact! Any books or movies you can recommend about Thatcher and her era would be very welcome. Thanks!

Hi!

I’m glad you’re enjoying/interested in them! It’s such a fascinating and yet sort of depressing period and topic because you’re right about the “no current incarnation of Tory politics (ugh) without Thatcher driving things the way she did.” (and keeping your (ugh) because very valid and appropriate).

The Tories have always been the party of the moneyed and noble class(es), but there was a time when they were a little less so, or at least a little more inclined towards recognizing that there was a basic duty owed to every UK citizen (although depending on how you defined “UK citizen” of course made a huge difference) that meant they could sort of be not fully terrible. Incidentally, one of my favorite UK prime ministers is Harold Macmillan, who was much more inclined to that sort of thing).

There are 3 BBC dramas that came out during the 2000s that are pretty well-done and accessible:

-The Long Walk to Finchley (showing Thatcher’s attempts to get into parliament) -The Falklands Play (showing a dramatized account of the conflict in the South Atlantic) -Margaret (showing her removal from office by the Tory Party after over 11 years dominating them and the country).

It used to be available on YouTube but I don’t know if it still is in full, but the BBC also did a documentary called Tory! Tory! Tory! around the same time period which documented the development/change in the party from the 1940s and 1950s up to the then-present day (sort of).

The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep is interesting, but it’s not necessarily the most informative. It is a pretty good impression of Thatcher, though.

For books:

Going to the horse’s mouth is usually not a bad thing, and I do own a copy of The Downing Street Years, where Thatcher described her life and her government during her time in office. It’s well over 1000 pages and is *not* the easiest or quickest read - she, broadly speaking, covers her premiership in detail, with many analyses and paragraphs devoted to minutiae and specific instances and policy descriptions. She is also, clearly, not an impartial/neutral source, and it was also written when the sting of removal was still very fresh, and so there is an element of scorekeeping and ex post facto justification or explanation. But she does also provide some interesting insights, and it’s quite interesting to compare and contrast what she says she thought or felt or did with what actually happened. There’s also (another) BBC series that goes into it, and interviewed her and her ministers and other figures, and so it’s a “more balanced” look at things.

John Campbell has a fairly informative and balanced and well-written biography of her that I’ve enjoyed over the years. I think it was originally in 2 volumes but there is also a condensed or single version.

Charles Moore, the former editor of the Daily Torygraph Telegraph, was chosen by Thatcher to write her authorized/official biography, which was not to be published until after she died. He is an infuriating and offensive figure who also has a decent way with words and while he clearly has...”some sympathy” (likely an understatement but we’ll go with that) with Thatcher and Tory views, he is able to admit that and also still provides an authoritative and surprisingly less hagiographical version of her life than you might expected. It’s also broken into three rather large volumes and so the first covers her life up to the Falklands, the second covers her life during her second term up to the 1987 election, and the third covers everything from that point forward.

Alan Clark’s and Edwina Currie’s Diaries are also pretty interesting and informative, Alan’s moreso I think, because they cover many of the same events from their own Tory political perspectives, along with the sorts of things they faced and dealt with. For a Labour perspective, I can’t help recommending Barbara Castle’s Diaries and her autobiography Fighting All The Way, both because she’s one of my favorite political figures who would have been the strongest contender for first female prime minister before Thatcher, but also for a contrast in many different ways. There are other ministerial or such memoirs and writings but I don’t know that I’d recommend them, or their authors.

God and Mrs. Thatcher: The Battle for Britain’s Soul by Eliza Filby is another one because it analyzes Thatcher and her policies and philosophy from the angle of religion, and it was a unique angle to use and also interesting/appropriate considering what Thatcher stated was the underlying impetus for what she did.

Claire Berlinski’s There Is No Alternative is an unashamedly admiring book about Thatcher and her impact, but it’s not without insight or honesty. It’s one of the more upfront books taking a look at Thatcher and it’s fairly quick to read and interesting.

For fiction, I think GB84, about the Miners’ Strike, by David Peace; The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst, featuring the life of a young, gay, middle-class Oxford graduate and his interactions with the upper class in Britain during Thatcher’s time in office; and the House of Cards trilogy by Michael Dobbs

Finally, any Spitting Image video clip you can find on youtube (latex puppets of Thatcher and other prominent 1980s and early 1990s figures. It’s funny and rude and a bit extreme)

[thecrownnet]

There is only one British prime minister whose portrayals on screen have variously been described as “flirtatious and coquettish”, “almost a glamour puss”, “a she-wolf” and as a “figure of awe for her personal strength and grit”.

Margaret Thatcher is returning to British television screens, and this time she will be played by the X-Files actress Gillian Anderson, who is swapping her FBI badge for a handbag in the fourth series of the blockbuster Netflix series The Crown.

Anderson, 50, is following in the footsteps of Meryl Streep, Greta Scacchi, Andrea Riseborough and a Spitting Image puppet voiced by a man as the latest incarnation of the Iron Lady, whose tearful departure from Downing Street in 1990 will provide a suitably emotional climax to the fourth series of the hugely popular royal pompfest.

Filming will begin in the summer and will cover Thatcher’s 11-year premiership and her occasionally tumultuous relationship with the Queen. Episodes will feature their supposed disagreements over sanctions on apartheid South Africa, the monarch’s concern at the divisions provoked by the 1984-5 miners’ strike and the 1982 Falklands War.

Anderson is about to star in the London West End production of All About Eve, which is due to run from February to May. She will then start trying on bouffant wigs and polish up her Grantham accent for what several actresses before her have described as a dream role. Anderson has reportedly been dating Peter Morgan, writer of The Crown, since 2016. The couple first met a decade earlier when they both worked on the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland.

Streep’s towering performance in the 2011 film The Iron Lady earned her a third Oscar and both Golden Globe and Bafta awards. Streep has admitted she was “not thrilled” with Thatcher’s politics but praised her as “a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for the role of women in politics”. She added: “To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream — the real-life option of leading their nation — this was groundbreaking and admirable.”

Abi Morgan, the scriptwriter for The Iron Lady (and no relation to Peter) said: “Perhaps what attracts the great actresses to the role is the complexity of playing a woman who was both revered and reviled.”

While Streep’s performance remains the yardstick for Thatcher portrayals, several other actresses have made a splash with radically contrasting depictions of Thatcher as either a saucy minx or a Hollywood pin-up. Riseborough’s portrayal in the BBC’s 2008 drama, The Long Walk to Finchley, was described by one critic as “ludicrously flattering” but highly watchable. In 2009 a BBC2 account of Thatcher’s last days in Downing Street featured Lindsay Duncan, described by The Guardian’s critic as “too brightly blonde, too enviably willowy”.

Earlier, Patricia Hodge played Thatcher in the 2002 BBC film The Falklands Play. One critic said Hodge “conveyed emotion and contempt with the slightest flicker of her eyes and doled out death stares, the likes of which could freeze fire at 500 yards”.

Anderson is said to resemble the Margaret Thatcher of the mid-1970s GETTY

The Crown has become one of the most expensive television series made with an estimated £10m spent on each episode. Series three and four of The Crown will feature an entirely new cast, with Olivia Colman replacing Claire Foy as Elizabeth.

Helen Bonham Carter will play Princess Margaret, Tobias Menzies takes over as Prince Philip, and Josh O’Connor will portray Prince Charles.

Filming on series three, which will cover 1964 to the late 1970s, is expected to conclude this month and will be released on Netflix in November. Events covered will include the investiture of Prince Charles, the Aberfan tragedy, the breakdown of Princess Margaret’s marriage, and the Prince of Wales’s early relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. The fourth series will introduce the young Diana Spencer — later Diana, Princess of Wales — and will air in 2020.

Steve Nallon, who gave Thatcher’s puppet its voice in the satirical Spitting Image series, and has coached others on how to replicate her distinctive tone, thinks Anderson is a perfect fit. “She’s the right age for it and she’s got the right features,” Nallon said. “People have a memory now as Mrs Thatcher being an old lady, but in 1975 she pretty much looked like Gillian Anderson.”

Anderson’s casting was also welcomed by Abi Morgan. “All I can say is Gillian will be fabulous,” she told The Sunday Times.

[londontheatre]

The National Theatre today announced Toby Stephens in the role of social-scientist Terje Rød-Larsen, with Lydia Leonard as his wife, diplomat Mona Juul and Peter Polycarpou plays Ahmed Qurie, the former Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. The Lincoln Center Theater’s critically acclaimed production of OSLO, begins performances at the National Theatre on 5 September (press nights 15, 16, 18 September) and later transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre (2 October – 30 December 2017).

This gripping new play by J T Rogers, directed by Bartlett Sher, was awarded ‘Best Play’ at the 2017 Tony Awards ® and was winner of every ‘Best Play’ award on Broadway this season including those given by New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle , Drama League, Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards.

In 1993, in front of the world’s press, the leaders of Israel and Palestine shook hands on the lawn of the White House. Few watching would have guessed that the negotiations leading up to this iconic moment started secretly in a castle in the middle of a forest outside Oslo.

Oslo tells the true story of how one young Norwegian couple Mona Juul (Lydia Leonard) and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen (Toby Stephens) planned and orchestrated top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords. Featuring dozens of characters and set in locations across the globe, Oslo is both a political thriller and the personal story of a small band of women and men struggling together – and fighting each other – as they seek to change the world. (Mona Juul is currently the Norwegian Ambassador to the UK – the first woman to occupy the role).

Toby Stephens has recently completed filming Lost in Space for Netflix – playing the leading role of John Robinson. The series is due for launch in 2018. Previous stage work includes Private Lives (Chichester Festival Theatre and Gielgud Theatre), Danton’s Death (NT), The Real Thing (Old Vic), A Doll’s House (Donmar Warehouse), Betrayal (Donmar Warehouse), Japes (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), A Streetcar Named Desire (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), The Country Wife (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Wallenstein (RSC), Unfinished Business (RSC), Tamburlaine (RSC), The Pilate Workshop (RSC), Hamlet – title role (RSC), Measure for Measure (RSC), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), Coriolanus – title role (RSC), All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC), Antony and Cleopatra (RSC), Britannicus (Almeida), Phèdre (Almeida and Brooklyn Academy Of Music)), Tartuffe (Playhouse), and Ring Round the Moon (Lincoln Center). Recent film work includes 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, The Journey and Hunter Killer (due for release.) Other film work includes: The Machine, Believe, All Things To All Men, Severance, The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey, Die Another Day, Possession, The Announcement, Onegin, Photographing Fairies, Sunset Heights, Cousin Bette, The Great Gatsby, Twelfth Night and Orlando. TV work includes: Black Sails, And Then There Were None, Vexed, Robin Hood , Wired, The Wild West, Jane Eyre, The Best Man, The Queen’s Sister, Cambridge Spies, Perfect Strangers, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Lydia Leonard appeared in Time and the Conways at the National. Her previous stage work includes Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies for which she was nominated for a TONY award and Hecuba (RSC), Let There Be Love (Tricycle); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic), Love’s Labour’s Lost on national tour and Onassis and Frost/Nixon in the West End. Her television appearances include Life in Squares, River, Lucan, Ambassadors, Da Vinci’s Demons, Whitechapel, Law & Order, Spooks, Casualty 1909, The 39 Steps, Ashes to Ashes, Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley, Casualty 1907, The Line of Beauty, Jericho, Rome, Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders. On film she has appeared in The Fifth Estate, The Big Picture, The Shocate, Born of War, Archipelago and True True Lie.

Peter Polycarpou takes the role Ahmed Qurie, the former Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. Peter’s previous work at the NT includes The Magistrate, Oklahoma! (also West End) and Metropolis Kabarett, He was in the original company of Les Misérables (RSC) and Miss Saigon (West End) he most recently appeared in Working at Southwark Playhouse.

The cast also includes Geraldine Alexander, Philip Arditti, Thomas Arnold, Nabil Elouahabi , Paul Herzberg. Karoline Gable, Anthony Shuster, Daniel Stewart and Howard Ward. Further casting will be announced.

Oslo is written by J T Rogers and directed by Bartlett Sher, with sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder, sound by Peter John Still and projections by 59 Productions. JT Rogers’ previous plays for the National Theatre are: Blood and Gifts, which premiered at the Lyttelton Theatre in 2010 and The Overwhelming, a co-production between the National Theatre and Out of Joint. His other plays include Madagascar (Theatre503 in London and Melbourne Theatre Company) and White People (Off-Broadway; Starry Night Productions). He was one of the authors of the Olivier nominated The Great Game: Afghanistan at the Tricycle Theatre. His plays have been seen across the U.S., and in Canada, Germany and Israel. Bartlett Sher’s makes his directorial debut for the National Theatre with Oslo. His previous work in the UK includes Women on the verge of a Breakdown at the Playhouse in 2015, Two Boys for the ENO and South Pacific for the Barbican in 2011 and TFANA’s Cymbeline, at the RSC’s The Other Place in 2001. His previous work for Lincoln Center Theater includes: The King and I, Golden Boy, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Awake and Sing!, The Light in the Piazza (Tony nominations); South Pacific (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle awards; also London, Australia); Blood and Gifts; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (London). Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway Theatre), The Bridges of Madison County (Schoenfeld). Off-Broadway: Prayer for My Enemy (Playwrights Horizons), Waste (Best Play Obie Award), Don Juan, Pericles (TFANA, BAM). Upcoming productions include Adam Guettel’s new musical Millions and My Fair Lady for LCT.

OSLO Listings Information National Theatre, Upper Ground, London SE1 9PX Dates: 5 – 26 September 2017 Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday at 2.00pm There will be a Platform event with Mona Juul, Mona Juul and the Oslo Accords in the Lyttleton Theatre on 15 September at 6pm.

Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton St, London SW1Y 4DN Dates: 2 October – 30 December 2017

http://ift.tt/2oNqaaQ LondonTheatre1.com

[andreaariseborough]

Margaret Thatcher - The Long Walk To Finchley (2008)

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[mariacallous]

so I’m rewatching The Long Walk to Finchley (about Thatcher’s path to getting elected to Parliament) and she’s absolutely reading and dragging the outgoing MP of Finchley which is hilarious

This whole movie is a trip because it’s like “Hey, here’s five times Margaret Thatcher got rejected for candidacy (and one time she didn’t)”. Like, the little wink-nudges to later stuff (like when this French waiter overcharges her and she gets really pushy and yells “I WANT MY MONEY BACK”, as one example) and the earnestness Andrea Riseborough brings to the role.

[mariacallous]

The full Long Walk to Finchley

The BBC has three productions in what I call the Thatcher Trilogy

The Long Walk to Finchley shows her 10 year path to trying to get elected to Parliament, with Andrea Riseborough as the young Margaret

The Falklands Play covers her premiership during the Falklands War, with Patricia Hodge as the wartime Margaret

Margaret shows her decline and fall from power, with occasional flashes to other times in her premiership/political career, starring Lindsay Duncan as the embattled and embittered Margaret