BBC shows when Margaret Thatcher had nowhere left to turn
A few yards closer and that could have been me on Strictly Come Dancing. As Margaret Thatcher came down the steps of the British ambassador's residence on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in November 1990, I was standing just behind John Sergeant as he jostled with her press secretary, Bernard Ingham.
The Daily Telegraph was providing the "pool" press reporter in case Mrs T decided to say something following the news from Westminster that she would have to face a second ballot for the Tory leadership because she had failed to defeat Michael Heseltine on the first by a sufficient margin. In a corner of the embassy courtyard, the rest of the British press looked on, too far away to hear anything she said; and, in the street outside the gates, scores of cameramen and reporters from media organisations around the globe waited for news.
In a room upstairs, Mrs Thatcher's entourage had advised her to gather her thoughts and consult her supporters before making any public statement. We had been told to expect nothing for some time, maybe not even that night. But that is not the way the lady worked. She knew any delay would be fatal.
The door opened and Mrs Thatcher bustled down into the courtyard seeking out the cameras and taking Sergeant by surprise. "I confirm it is my intention to let my name go forward for the second ballot," she said. She never did, of course. The Cabinet had turned against her, and she was finished, as everyone there that night knew.
It was an electrifying moment, the culmination of an extraordinary few weeks in British politics that make the political crises that have happened since seem mere bagatelles in comparison. After all, here was an incumbent prime minister, the first woman to occupy the job, a politician who had won three general elections and had never been defeated in the Commons on a matter of confidence, facing a fight for her political life. And it was not the opposition that had ganged up against her, but her own party. This was drama laced with the foetid stench of betrayal. It was a political assassination so dreadful that the Tories took a generation to recover from the blood-letting.
On Thursday, the BBC is showing a two-hour film, Margaret, with Lindsay Duncan in the title role, that seeks to capture those momentous final days of the Thatcher premiership, a cauldron of treachery, vainglory, intrigue, incompetence and hubris. If it comes anywhere near the real thing, it will make for riveting television...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The Daily Telegraph was providing the "pool" press reporter in case Mrs T decided to say something following the news from Westminster that she would have to face a second ballot for the Tory leadership because she had failed to defeat Michael Heseltine on the first by a sufficient margin. In a corner of the embassy courtyard, the rest of the British press looked on, too far away to hear anything she said; and, in the street outside the gates, scores of cameramen and reporters from media organisations around the globe waited for news.
In a room upstairs, Mrs Thatcher's entourage had advised her to gather her thoughts and consult her supporters before making any public statement. We had been told to expect nothing for some time, maybe not even that night. But that is not the way the lady worked. She knew any delay would be fatal.
The door opened and Mrs Thatcher bustled down into the courtyard seeking out the cameras and taking Sergeant by surprise. "I confirm it is my intention to let my name go forward for the second ballot," she said. She never did, of course. The Cabinet had turned against her, and she was finished, as everyone there that night knew.
It was an electrifying moment, the culmination of an extraordinary few weeks in British politics that make the political crises that have happened since seem mere bagatelles in comparison. After all, here was an incumbent prime minister, the first woman to occupy the job, a politician who had won three general elections and had never been defeated in the Commons on a matter of confidence, facing a fight for her political life. And it was not the opposition that had ganged up against her, but her own party. This was drama laced with the foetid stench of betrayal. It was a political assassination so dreadful that the Tories took a generation to recover from the blood-letting.
On Thursday, the BBC is showing a two-hour film, Margaret, with Lindsay Duncan in the title role, that seeks to capture those momentous final days of the Thatcher premiership, a cauldron of treachery, vainglory, intrigue, incompetence and hubris. If it comes anywhere near the real thing, it will make for riveting television...