The Long Walk to Finchley (2008)

I enjoyed The Long Walk to Finchley a lot the first time I saw it, and then caught it again on BBC3 as Andrew wanted to watch it, so I'm pleased to say it was just as enjoyable second time round. Last time this Margaret Thatcher biography was on I also watched Margaret (2009) a more serious drama about Thatcher's downfall and her last days in power. In Margaret, Lindsay Duncan portrayed the Iron Lady in a straight-forward but compelling drama. In Finchley, Andrea Riseborough plays Thatcher (or Roberts as she was before marrying Denis) in a much more playful piece, that charts how she may have got her start in politics. 

There's a good deal of artistic licence employed in Tony Saint's witty script, not least the lashings of humour and the breezy pace at which Niall McCormick directs the piece. Riseborough is an excellent actress, getting Thatcher's voice and mannerisms spot on, and I enjoyed her in the slightly more serious Civil War drama, The Devil's Whore (according to Wikipedia she apparently played the original Annie in the Being Human pilot!), and she has a great supporting cast including Rory Kinnear as Denis, Samuel West as Ted Heath, and Geoffrey Palmer in an extended cameo as a gruff Tory bigwig who has no truck with women in politics.

The drama follows Thatcher from her first forays into politics, along with numerous setbacks, through to winning her seat in parliament for Finchley. She is portrayed as single-minded when it comes to politics, and poor Denis is shown as playing second-fiddle to her career. When she has twins, Thatcher is pleased that, with one of each sex, she's done with pregnancy and can get on with her career. Two of the wittiest exchanges in the piece involve foreshadowings of her children Carol and Mark's future notoriety - Mark asks when Carol will ever go to the jungle (she won, I believe, I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here), and Mark asks his mother if he can go to Africa one day, where he says he won't be any trouble (he was arrested for a coup attempt in an African country).

Now all I'm lacking is a piece that covers Thatcher's actual time in power, about which I know very little, other than mostly negative aspects. I don't suppose that would be a comedy then.