Margaret Thatcher

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Other
Birthday
Oct 13, 1925 (99 years old)
Death date
Apr 08, 2013

Margaret Thatcher

Known For

Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game
0h 58m
TV Show 2024

Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game

Betray your country, save the world. Spies and traitors play a dangerous game in the 1980s as the Cold War brings two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.

A Very British Sex Scandal: The Love Child & the Secretary
1h 19m
Movie 2024

A Very British Sex Scandal: The Love Child & the Secretary

Edwina Currie, Matthew Parris and Ian Hislop lead a cast of politicians and journalists sharing personal memories of Cecil Parkinson and the scandal that ended his political ambitions – a secret affair with his secretary Sara Keays that lasted 12 years and would threaten the stability of the Conservative government. A story of power, politics and personal consequences.

Lockerbie
0h 50m
TV Show 2023

Lockerbie

Four-part documentary recounting the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, when 270 people lost their lives. With exclusive access to victims' families, investigators, officials and key figures.

In the Grip of Gazprom
1h 30m
Movie 2023

In the Grip of Gazprom

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.

Kids' TV: The Surprising Story
0h 58m
Movie 2022

Kids' TV: The Surprising Story

Konnie Huq celebrates the very best of British children’s television, with a dazzling array of clips from some of the most treasured programmes ever made and revealing chats with some of TV’s most beloved stars. But Konnie also tells a perhaps more surprising story: of how kids’ TV has frequently been at the forefront of social change, in terms of the stories it tells and the people who get to tell them.

McEnroe
1h 44m
Movie 2022

McEnroe

Legendary "bad boy of tennis" John McEnroe finally tells his side of his storied career and famously hot-tempered performances on the court in this engrossing documentary revisiting the record-setting career of one of the all-time greats.

Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins
1h 47m
Movie 2021

Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins

A brutal account of how real-life, hard-as-nails Falklands War veteran Tony Tucker came to be involved in one of the most notorious gangland murders in British history.

Influence
1h 30m
Movie 2020

Influence

Charting the recent advancements in weaponized communication by investigating the rise and fall of the world’s most notorious public relations and reputation management firm: the British multinational Bell Pottinger.

Biography

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK. On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised greater individual liberty, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike. In 1986, Thatcher oversaw the deregulation of UK financial markets, leading to an economic boom, in what came to be known as the Big Bang. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership, and was succeeded by John Major, her chancellor of the Exchequer. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87. A polarising figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain; the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be debated into the 21st century.