The Lady's Not for Returning: Memory, Mediation and Margaret Thatcher in Three Contemporary Biopics

This article examines three recent biopics depicting former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: the single dramas Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (BBC4, 2008) and Margaret (BBC2, 2009), and the UK/France co-production The Iron Lady (2011). Recognising their differences as indicative of divergent contexts of production, the article considers how each film similarly responds to industrial and social demands for 1980s-related British content but is forced to contend with the multitudinous incompatible readings inspired by Margaret Thatcher's heavily mediated iconography. The Long Walk to Finchley and Margaret, produced for domestic British television viewers, use strategies that encourage ambivalence, relying formally on ahistorical genres and narratively on self-conscious representation to distance themselves from docudrama and appease polarised viewers. However, The Iron Lady, a feature film destined for international theatrical release, broadens Thatcher's appeal by emphasising stylistic verisimilitude and structuring its narrative according to the subjective memories of a fictionalised Thatcher. This allows space for multiple interpretations: Thatcher's memories can be read as evidence of her political success, as the delusions of an ageing woman, or as indications of her struggle for power as a woman in a male-dominated sphere. The article suggests that all three productions foreground difficulties in recalling, in biopic form, a British politician whose motifs have been widely mediated and parodied and whose policies instil tremendously opposing sentiments and views.