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Product Description
This is a documentary about Margaret Thatcher, and is NOT the theatrical film called The Iron Lady, which stars Meryl Streep.
Documentary Description:
From her humble beginnings as a Grocers daughter from Grantham, Margaret Thatcher fought her way through the murky world of politics, the sexist prejudices of the Conservative Party elite and the scepticism of the British electorate to become the greatest British Prime Minister since Winston Churchill. Margaret Thatcher - The Iron Lady is the first major documentary to look back on the development and impact of this remarkable woman, whom commentators of both the political left and right agree changed the face of 20th Century politics forever. Featuring many excerpts from her powerful speeches and insightful contributions from her political supporters and detractors, a portrait emerges of a woman whose strength of conviction eventually became her weakness. This programme includes intimate footage of the Thatchers at home in Number 10, and unseen footage from her emotional and first major interview after her resignation as Prime Minister with Michael Brunson in 1992. Contributors include: Lord Heseltine, Lord Howe, ex-Conservative MP Gyles Brandreth, ITN political editor Michael Brunson, biographer Hugo Vickers, political correspondent Nicholas Owen, biographer Robert Lacey.
Documentary Description:
From her humble beginnings as a Grocers daughter from Grantham, Margaret Thatcher fought her way through the murky world of politics, the sexist prejudices of the Conservative Party elite and the scepticism of the British electorate to become the greatest British Prime Minister since Winston Churchill. Margaret Thatcher - The Iron Lady is the first major documentary to look back on the development and impact of this remarkable woman, whom commentators of both the political left and right agree changed the face of 20th Century politics forever. Featuring many excerpts from her powerful speeches and insightful contributions from her political supporters and detractors, a portrait emerges of a woman whose strength of conviction eventually became her weakness. This programme includes intimate footage of the Thatchers at home in Number 10, and unseen footage from her emotional and first major interview after her resignation as Prime Minister with Michael Brunson in 1992. Contributors include: Lord Heseltine, Lord Howe, ex-Conservative MP Gyles Brandreth, ITN political editor Michael Brunson, biographer Hugo Vickers, political correspondent Nicholas Owen, biographer Robert Lacey.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
First of all let me be clear that unlike other reviewers I am not a fan or enemy of Margaret Thatcher. Like most people I remember her being a controversial politician that her followers loved and her enemies hated. The reason that I went to see the film the Iron Lady is partly due to curiosity and mainly due to Meryl Streep, and curiosity is the main reason I bought this documentary. If the intention of the documentary maker was to give an even-balanced view of Margaret Thatcher as a politician and woman without any bile then they have achieved this. There are several revealing interviews with the people who worked with her such as Howe and Heseltine who are somewhat grudging, and excellent interviews with Michael Brunson, who appears to have stalked her for ITN news throughout her career, and Gyles Brandreth, who benefitted from Thatcher's ability to win elections. Whilst they are never crassly negative about her time as Prime Minister, they do point out the good, the bad and in the later stages of the poll tax debacle, the ugly concerning Thatcher's years in power. There is an incredible amount of genuine pathos as several interviewees recall that the single minded sense of purpose that made Thatcher very electable in 1979, also made her very unelectable in 1990. The pathos being that she could never understand that, even years after. In some ways, even if you were not a supporter of Thatcher, this programme gives you a lot to admire Margaret Thatcher for, but it never makes a case for her explicitly and lets the archive interviews and speeches speak for themselves. One thing I found particularly sobering and discomforting is that in twenth years or so since Margret Thacher's demise, the lesson of her downfall seems to be that true conviction is now a dirty word amongst all political leaders.
As for the DVD itself technically, most archive footage is clear and re-framed at 16:9. There is some interesting footage of Thatcher as a new MP at home with Carol and Mark and a lot of unseen footage of the 'hat' wearing Thatcher giving speeches! The interviews are crisply filmed with the House of Commons as a backdrop and the director of the Iron Lady film Phyllidia Lloyd is also briefly interviewed towards the end, and there are several Spitting Image clips that are hilarious. The documentary is a full ninety minutes long and whilst it can't pack in eleven years of her career as Prime Minister, it does a very good job. There is an unusual extra of nearly thirty minutes which is an election 1987 special with Peter Sissons. Whilst not directly releated to the documentary and slightly dated because of the issues discussed, it does show Thatcher, the consumate politician, at work, controlling Sissons and working the audience with more gusto and gravitas than Cameron or Miliband could ever muster. As Brandreth summarised - 'whether you loved or hated Margaret Thatcher, you can't help but have respect for her.
As for the DVD itself technically, most archive footage is clear and re-framed at 16:9. There is some interesting footage of Thatcher as a new MP at home with Carol and Mark and a lot of unseen footage of the 'hat' wearing Thatcher giving speeches! The interviews are crisply filmed with the House of Commons as a backdrop and the director of the Iron Lady film Phyllidia Lloyd is also briefly interviewed towards the end, and there are several Spitting Image clips that are hilarious. The documentary is a full ninety minutes long and whilst it can't pack in eleven years of her career as Prime Minister, it does a very good job. There is an unusual extra of nearly thirty minutes which is an election 1987 special with Peter Sissons. Whilst not directly releated to the documentary and slightly dated because of the issues discussed, it does show Thatcher, the consumate politician, at work, controlling Sissons and working the audience with more gusto and gravitas than Cameron or Miliband could ever muster. As Brandreth summarised - 'whether you loved or hated Margaret Thatcher, you can't help but have respect for her.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Running at over 90 minutes plus extras, this is a very worthwhile introduction and perspective on Margaret Thatcher as a person and as a political leader and Prime Minister. The interviews are interesting and the story is delivered factually and without any political bias. The fall from power is recounted dramatically in a way that seems to unravel as thought it has just happened without the passing of twenty years. A perfect introduction to Margaret Thatcher for my daughter who is studying this period in modern history!
Format:DVD
This is a very good value documentary. Something worth having and for your children to see what a real leader of the free world was like and admire her achievements. The only leader to call Nelson Mandela a terrorist and refuse to meet him.It's things like that, that gave her rightly the title "The Iron Lady" - no one but her, could have saved Britain in 1979 from the claws of communism choking Britain.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Margaret Thatcher - The Iron Lady - Documentary
Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill were the best Prime Ministers that Great Britain ever
had and this dvd of Maggie told a lot about her life and service to our country... Read more
had and this dvd of Maggie told a lot about her life and service to our country... Read more
Published 1 month ago by L. G. Baker
Too short
A very respectful work about one of the most relevant and visionary ruler of 20th Century.
Watching it, may be realized how important Lady Thatcher was for UK and the world. Read more
Watching it, may be realized how important Lady Thatcher was for UK and the world. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Walter Cooper Cortes
Mrs T to a T
I thought this was a reasonable ninety minute overview of Margaret Thatcher mainly because of the very professional commentary by Michael Brunson, Nicholas Owen, Hugo Vickers and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Robin Benson
The Iron Lady. Check what you are ordering !
Watch out. This in NOT the movie "Iron Lady". It is a documentary of the same name. I fell into the trap and have had to return it.
Published 4 months ago by Villager1
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Lady with the marble smile
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See the scourge of innocence... Read more
"From the land of shadows
Comes a dreadful sight
Lady with the marble smile
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See the scourge of innocence... Read more
Published 4 months ago by bigmomma59
Best Prime Minister since Churchill
An excellent film and I'm sure an excellent documentary about the best Prime Minister since Churchill. Love her or hate her at least she stood up for herself and this country. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. E. Dixon
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