A whole slew of dramas and plays mark half a century since her election as Tory leader. But there is too much gloss, when so many people are still suffering<\/p>\n
Now she\u2019s an opera<\/a>. Yet another myth-making apotheosis lifts Margaret Thatcher to iconic realms, crafting for her an image recalling Elizabeth I. Historian Dominic Sandbrook is writing the libretto of her story, as one Thatcher tribute act trips over the next. This week saw James Graham\u2019s Brian and Maggie<\/a> drama about an interview that helped tip her towards her downfall. Next week, Radio 4 brings us When Larry met Maggie<\/a>, Tim Walker\u2019s play imagining scenes when Laurence Olivier coached the ingenue education secretary in the art of wooing and even seducing audiences.<\/p>\n This week marks the 50th anniversary of Thatcher\u2019s election<\/a> as leader of her party. I started counting but lost track of the myriad actors who have played her, some of the greatest of our time. Harriet Walter was magnificent<\/a>, as ever. So were Gillian Anderson<\/a> and Meryl Streep<\/a>. Lesley Manville <\/a>was just as fine, as was Patricia Hodge<\/a>, and I\u2019m sure Frances Barber will be next week in Walker\u2019s radio play. None but royalty of stage and screen are fit to play her.<\/p>\n Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A whole slew of dramas and plays mark half a century since her election as Tory leader. But there is too much gloss, when so many people are still suffering Now she\u2019s an opera. Yet another myth-making apotheosis lifts Margaret Thatcher to iconic realms, crafting for her an image recalling Elizabeth I. Historian Dominic Sandbrook … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}