Margaret Thatcher - The Long Walk to Finchley

This was a 90 minute BBC Four drama about the young Margaret Thatcher before she became an MP.

It was hard to get into this drama to start with because the actress playing Mrs Thatcher (Andrea Riseborough) didn't resemble her, and neither did the men playing Dennie Thatcher or Ted Heath. I suppose Mrs Thatcher is such a familiar face, it is difficult for anyone to play her, and this is made more difficult by the fact that we have mostly seen her as a mature woman and find it hard to imagine her young.

However, gradually as you get into the piece, Andrea Riseborough seems more Thatcher-like (especially in the second half), with her voice, bird-like walk and habit of putting her head to one side captured perfectly.

I enjoyed this drama, and felt increasingly sorry for poor Dennis Thatcher as the piece wore on. The theme of the story is that he loves her more than she loves him, mainly because she is so consumed with politics, she hasn't room for anyone or anything else.

The press made quite a bit of the licence taken in scenes between Thatcher and Heath, with some saying that this drama portrayed Thatcher hitting on Heath as a young woman, which Heath recoils from. I interpreted it more that Heath was repelled by how passionate and ambitious she was, and may have mis-interpreted what happened. Judge for yourself by viewing the drama on the iPlayer. But there is no doubt that that particular scene is entirely fiction (though it spices the drama up nicely).