Scripted

Marking 40 years since Britain’s first female prime minister rocketed to power in 1979, the BBC presents the defining story of Margaret Thatcher and of the era when she dominated the political and social landscape. How did the small town girl from Grantham, a woman who said she would not see a female Prime Minister in her own lifetime, rip the UK out of the post-war consensus, and the chaos of the 1970s, and hurl the country towards the opportunities, individualism, wealth, inequalities, global standing and dilemmas of the present day? And how has the public memory of her life and career led to a situation where she repeatedly tops opinion polls when ordinary British people are asked to name both our worst, and our greatest, post-war leader? Through the prism of one woman’s rise and fall, this series charts the seismic social history of modern Britain. Vivid archive footage from the time - ranging from the violent and visceral to the intimate and unseen - will allow us both a deeply personal glimpse of this remarkable politician, and transport us to the heart of some of the most important formative events in Britain’s recent past. We will hear from those closest to her (politicians, friends, adversaries, some of the defining faces of the time) and from the citizens from every corner of Britain whose lives would be altered forever by the powerful shifts she brought about. Together their evocative, personal and revealing first-hand testimony will combine to build a multi-layered perspective, both of Thatcher herself and of a nation undergoing epoch defining social and cultural change. ‘Thatcher’ (working title - 5x60' - BBC Studios' The Documentary Unit) is being produced by BBC Studios' The Documentary Unit and will air on BBC Two.