The Stage

Duncan to star as Thatcher in BBC2 drama

Published Tuesday 8 April 2008 at 18:40 by Matthew Hemley

Lindsay Duncan is to play Margaret Thatcher in a new BBC2 drama set in the year of the former prime minister’s fall from power.

The drama, called Margaret, is being made by Great Meadow Productions and is to be directed by James Kent, who was behind the biopic of cookery writer Elizabeth David for BBC4.

Set in 1990, the year Thatcher resigned as prime minister, It will follow on from Great Meadow’s forthcoming BBC4 drama Margaret Thatcher - The Long Walk to Finchley, which will take a look at the Tory leader’s rise to power and will star Andrea Riseborough.

The production company’s co-founder Robert Cooper said: “Whilst The Long Walk To Finchley puts Margaret Thatcher’s character traits to comedic effect as she puts her first, youthful foot on the ladder to power, Margaret is a much darker examination of the final days of her reign and a compelling look into what 11 years of power did to her.”

Margaret is written by Richard Cottan, who wrote BBC4’s Hancock and Joan Cooper and Kate Triggs will executive produce for Great Meadow, which also makes the BBC1 series Messiah.