Margaret Thatcher
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.
Acted in
Secrets & Spies
2024
as Self (Archive)
Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game
2024
as Self (Archive)
A Very British Sex Scandal: The Love Child & the Secretary
2024
as Self (archive footage)
In the Grip of Gazprom
2023
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Her Majesty's Prime Ministers: John Major
2023
as Self
Nazi Hunters: The Real Walk-In
2022
as Self (archive Footage)
Kids' TV: The Surprising Story
2022
as Self (Archive Footage)
Thatcher's Not Dead
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Prelúdio
2022
as Herself
McEnroe
2022
as Self (archive Footage)
Ice Under His Feet
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins
2021
as Self (archive footage)
Endgame in Ireland
2021
as Self (archive footage)
Thatcher vs The Miners: The Battle for Britain
2021
as Self (archive footage)
History 101
2020
as Self (archive footage)
Influence
2020
as Self (archive footage)
1979: Big Bang of the Present
2019
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Laboratory Greece
2019
as Self (archive footage)
England 79
2019
Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks
2019
as Self (archive footage)
Breakpoint: A Counter History of Progress
2019
as Self (archive footage)
Thatcher: A Very British Revolution
2019
as Self (archive footage)
Meeting Gorbachev
2019
as Self (archive Footage)
Brexit: The Uncivil War
2019
as Herself (archive footage)
6 Days
2017
as Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hong Kong: Retrocession Generation
2017
as Herself (archive footage)
紫荆花开
2017
The Swap
2016
as Self (voice)
Shadow World
2016
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
How to Win the US Presidency
2016
as Self (archive footage)
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach
2016
as Self (archive footage)
Hillsborough
2016
as Self (archive Footage)
The 90s: Ten Years That Changed the World
2015
as Self (archive footage)
The Emperor's New Clothes
2015
as Self (archive footage)
Laissez-faire
2015
as Self (archive footage)
New World Order: Communism by the Backdoor
2014
as Self (archive footage)
Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary
2013
as Self
Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister
2013
as Self
Maggie and Me
2013
as Self (Archive Footage)
Propaganda
2013
as Self (archive footage)
Margaret Thatcher: The Woman Who Changed Britain
2013
as Self
Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady
2012
as Herself
Reagan
2011
as Self (archive footage)
The Lady is Not for Turning: An Unauthorized Story on Margaret Thatcher
2011
Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics
2010
as Self (archive footage)
How to Win the TV Debate
2010
as Self (Archive Footage)
The Shock Doctrine
2009
as Self (archive footage)
Portillo on Thatcher
2008
as Self (Archive Footage)
How to Be an Ex-Prime Minister
2007
as Herself
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
2007
as Self (archive footage)
Best Ever Spitting Image
2006
as Self (Archive Footage)
The Real Animal Farm
2006
Remembering Reagan at His Ranch
2004
as Self (archive footage)
The State Funeral of Ronald Reagan
2004
as Self
The Century of the Self
2002
as Self (archive footage)
Cabinet Confidential
2001
as Self
The Pinochet Case
2001
as Self (archive footage)
The Secret Rulers of the World
2001
as Self (archive footage)
Blackadder: Back & Forth
1999
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Reagan
1998
as Self
Degeneration Punk
1997
How to Be Prime Minister
1996
as Self
The Wilderness Years
1995
as Self (Archive Footage)
Odd Man Out: A Film Portrait of Enoch Powell
1995
as Self
Empire of the Censors
1995
as Self
Wasted Windfall
1994
as Self
Thatcher: The Downing Street Years
1993
as Herself
The Falklands War: The Untold Story
1987
as Self (archive footage)
Rockin' Ronnie
1986
as Self (archive footage)
Informe especial
1984
as Self (archive footage)
The Red and the Blue
1983
as Self (uncredited)
Let Poland Be Poland
1982
as Self
To Kill the Cabinet
as Self (archive footage)