List of ‘unhelpful’ celebrities who Denis Thatcher didn’t want at Downing St party
Attenborough and Mccartney got a thumbs down
One is a national treasure, another a globally famous musician. But when Margaret Thatcher’s husband Sir Denis spotted their names on a guest list of celebrities who were being invited to a party at Downing Street, he questioned their inclusion.
Although we will never know what Sir Denis had against Sir David Attenborough or Sir Paul Mccartney, they were among the names he marked with a question mark in red ink when he saw the list for an event to be staged in April 1988. It was planned as a thank you to 45 celebrities who had attended a rally at Wembley during the previous year’s general election campaign.
Documents released by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation showed that Sir Denis saw the initial list and decided more guests were needed.
A longer list was drawn up, of “a possible 229 without spouses”, which included some suggestions from former culture secretary John Whittingdale, then political secretary to Thatcher.
However on seeing the expanded list, Sir Denis went through it with a red pen, marking ticks against those he “would personally like to see included” and question marks beside “those who, I believe, do not help”.
In a note to the Private Office, he wrote: “Whilst I accept of course that not everyone who comes to our receptions are necessarily on ‘our’ side I find it both unpleasant and embarrassing to entertain those who publicly insult the PM.
“This list therefore needs some careful checking in this regard.”
He explained that more than one red tick on the list “means super person and a known friend and wonderful to have them here”.
His absolute favourite was comedian Eric Sykes, who got four ticks.
There were also ticks for Rolf Harris, Andrew Lloyd-webber, Dame Judi Dench, Ronnie Corbett and golfers Tony Jacklin and Nick Faldo, among others.
Question marks were placed beside names including Paul Mccartney, Sir David Attenborough, Sebastian Coe, Shirley Bassey and magician Paul Daniels.
Chris Collins, of the foundation, said it was “unusual” for Sir Denis to involve himself to such lengths, and that this may be explained by an earlier episode in which he considered suing BBC Radio 4’s Today programme for libel over a show aired in January 1988.
Sir Denis criticised the show’s satirical story, entitled Thatcherism: The Final Solution, writing that never has “so foul a libel been published against anyone let alone a prime minister”.
Mr Collins said: “The special coded system of question marks and ticks and crosses, that’s actually slightly unusual.
“I think perhaps he was in a somewhat irritable frame of mind and maybe the story about the BBC helps to explain that. Certainly the steam is coming out of his ears at various points in 1988 and this party he jumps on.”
In the end the longer guestlist was dropped in favour of the original 45 plus the Parliamentary Skiing Team and the British Winter Olympics squad, although Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards did not attend.
Mr Collins said documents do not reveal why “suddenly they changed tack” from plans for the longer guestlist.
Members of the public will be able to browse the archive from monday by visiting www.margaretthatcher.org