Template talk:Margaret Thatcher

Cultural depictions

Margaret Thatcher was many things, but the main thing she was was a politician, the first female prime minister of the UK. I've twice removed a section from this template which seemed to be an indiscriminate listing of films where she was portrayed. This is not appropriate. It might be ok to decide a small number of truly significant depictions and put them in here. It must not be allowed to dominate the template. Make sense? --John (talk) 08:12, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Twice removed? Within 11 hours? I thought admins were meant to discourage edit wars. I guess WP:BRD does not apply to them ..... WWGB (talk) 12:56, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

I am not acting as an admin in this matter. Do you have anything substantive to add to the discussion? --John (talk) 13:23, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Other than noting WP:BRRD? No. WWGB (talk) 13:30, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. --John (talk) 19:25, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Cultural depictions section

I have added Spitting Image and the new The New Statesman to this section. Although both were comedies, they represent important satirical depictions of Margaret Thatcher. During her premiership she was one of the most featured people in Spitting Image and continued to appear in the series thereafter. Her puppet was one of the best known and arguably influenced other depictions of her and various Thatcher sketches became well known in popular cultrue. In The New Statesman Steve Nallon appeared in a few episodes as Mrs Thatcher, and continued his Spitting Image portrayal of her as more masculine than many of her Party. For dates I have gone with the entire run of Spitting Image as the puppet appeared in the first and last episodes of the original run, but for The New Statesman have cut off with series 3 in 1991 as she did not appear after this (even her series 3 appearances, not portrayed by Nallon, are very fleeting). I think they are important enough to be included, but am happy to discuss further. Dunarc (talk) 20:32, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

I have also added 2020 to the Spitting Image dates as Nallon returned as Thatcher's spirit possessing the current Prime Minister in its Halloween episode and her portrait (based on her 1980s puppet) features prominently in it. Dunarc (talk) 21:15, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Premiership section

Hi, myself and No Swan So Fine have been working on historic Thatcher speeches and so forth. We've been adding them to the template in the Premiership section but it's starting to look a bit crowded. I had a play around and think it looks better if this is split by her terms in office. I've shown an example below (note I've set this to auto-expand for this purpose). Are there any objections to making this change? - Dumelow (talk) 11:34, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

Not from me, I think it looks fine. ‑‑Neveselbert (talk · contribs · email) 14:21, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Neveselbert, I've made the change - Dumelow (talk) 07:46, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry

I have added the 1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry to the end of the Member of Parliament section, as it as she effectively led the vote that brought down the Callaghan government and paved the way for the 1979 general election that brought her to power. Dunarc (talk) 19:20, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

The Final Cut and House of Cards

I wonder if the 1995 TV adaptation of the The Final Cut should be included in the "Cultural depictions" section of the template. It is in the Cultural depictions of Margaret Thatcher article, but Margaret Thatcher does not appear, rather it opens with her funeral (which caused some controversy at the time given she was still very much alive and led to Michael Dobbs somewhat disowning the production), and later includes a scene with a statue of her being unveiled. There is a also a plot point about Francis Urquhart being about to break her "record" as longest serving Prime Minister. The novel by Dobbs includes the statue as a plot point, but not the funeral. However is this enough for it to be included? If so should the 1990 House of Cards adaptation, the first in the trilogy, also be included as it starts with a photograph of Thatcher and Urquhart commenting on her premiership coming to an end and going to elect her successor (and ironically this had greater significance than the production team could have known as a few days after episode 1 was broadcast Mrs Thatcher did resign as Prime Minister - giving it added cultural significance). I would appreciate others' views on this. Dunarc (talk) 22:42, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

See also

I have started a section for some articles that are of relevance to the template, but would not easily fit in any of its existing sections. I am not sure this is an ideal approach, so if anyone can think of a better way of handling this, then I am happy to discuss further. Dunarc (talk) 23:38, 1 December 2021 (UTC)