Thatcher was a feminist icon, insists writer of The Crown

MARGARET Thatcher cher was a “feminist heroine”, the creator of The Crown has said, amid mid a backlash over her screen portrayal. ortrayal.

Gillian Anderson n plays the former prime minister r in the Netflix series, in a portrayal ayal that has been interpreted reted both as too sympampathetic and too harsh. h.

Now Peter Mororg a n, t he s how w’s ’ s writer, has added to the mix by asserting ing that the Tory leader der was an icon of femi- minism. Many feminists would disagree, as would Baroness Thatcher herself – she famously told an i nterviewer: “I’m not a feminist,” dismissing the Women’s Lib movement as “too strident”. However, Morgan said: “She had absolutely no time or regard for women in a professional way. So she was anything but a sister.

“And yet the way in which she overcame that ‘ boys’ club’, patronising sort of contempt – really, a great deal of her political challenges came from older men within her own cabinet who both were contemptuous of her gender and of her background. And her ability to see them off makes her a feminist heroine.

“And yet no sooner would she be a feminist heroine, then she would scuttle back to make sure she was ironing her husband’s shirt.”

Speaking to The Crown’s official podcast, Morgan also divulged the basis for his portrayal of her distress when her son Mark went missing during a car rally in 1982. He said: “I spoke to Robert Armstrong who [in 1982] was Cabinet secretary. He told me it was the one time that she was absolutely incapacitated.

“He said she was never not 100 per cent game ready but in those few days, while Mark Thatcher was lost in that desert, she was just not game ready – she was utterly incapable of speech.”