The Long Walk to Finchley
Encyclopedia
Margaret Thatcher - The Long Walk to Finchley, subtitled in the initial credits How Maggie Might Have Done It, is a 2008 BBC Four
television drama based on the early political career of the young Margaret Thatcher
(née Roberts), from her attempts to gain a seat in Dartford in 1949 via invasion to her first successful campaign to win a parliamentary seat, Finchley
, in 1959. It also portrays her early relationship and marriage with Denis Thatcher
. It is directed by Niall MacCormick
and written by Tony Saint
- it was made by Great Meadows Productions. Thatcher is played by Andrea Riseborough
, Denis by Rory Kinnear
, and Edward Heath
by Samuel West
.
It was followed in February 2009 by Margaret, a drama on Thatcher's fall from power filmed in 2008-09, with Thatcher played by Lindsay Duncan
.
, and the terraced house from which she is picked up by Denis is the History Department of University College London
). It was to have been aired in February 2008, but was postponed to avoid offence to its subject (a scream of "fucking establishment!" by the Thatcher character had already been cut from the drama at her supporters' request, and replaced with "Damn their establishment!").
Reception of the drama after broadcast, however, was generally positive, with particular note taken of tongue-in-cheek references to future events (Margaret promises that, were she in charge, "every child in the country would have as much milk as they wanted", as against her later reputation as "milk-snatcher Thatcher"; and the Thatcher children make remarks related to their future notoriety for an attempted African coup
involving Mark Thatcher
and appearance on "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" involving Carol Thatcher
respectively). Crowder also speaks the line "A grocer's daughter. A grocer, Heath?!?" to Heath in contempt of Margaret's background, making reference to Heath's later nickname of Grocer Heath.
On 27 March 2009 The Long Walk to Finchley won 3 Broadcasting Press Guild
Awards - Best Single Drama, Best Multichannel Programme and Best Actress (Andrea Riseborough)
candidate for the constituency of Dartford
in the run-up to the 1950 election
, and is openly optimistic despite most other Tories' opinion that no Tory can win the seat, let alone a woman. During the election campaign she meets Ted Heath, candidate for the key marginal seat of Bexley
. He is suspicious of her populist and publicity-seeking style, but less overtly hostile to her than more reactionary figures in the party such as Waldron Smithers
. Overall national party strategy is for Roberts to draw Labour
attention away from Bexley and Chislehurst
(also being fought by a woman, Patricia Hornsby-Smith
) to enable these two key marginal seat
s to be won. This Margaret does, and Bexley and Chislehurst are duly won, but Margaret herself is beaten at Dartford by the Labour candidate (despite reducing his majority). Her relationship with Denis founders and she decides that she must improve her chances of finding a new and winnable seat. To this end she decides to leave science and study for the Bar.
At a Tory ball, Miss Hornsby-Smith engineers a meeting between Margaret and the shy and (it is implied) possibly homosexual Ted. Margaret flirts with him in an attempt to better her political career, and asks him a question which the audience does not hear (though they do hear Heath stating "we must never speak of this again"). Having failed to begin a relationship with Heath, she recommences her relationship with Denis and pre-empts and accepts his proposal of marriage. Her teetotal father accepts her choice, despite concerns over Denis's status as a non-teetotaller and a divorcé and the marriage taking place in London not their home town of Grantham. She again fails to win Dartford at the 1951 election
and writes to console Heath on the death of his mother, to whom he was close. Even on their honeymoon, Margaret is keen to take on a candidacy for the safe
Tory seat of Canterbury
, but in the meantime, Heath convinces the Canterbury Conservative Association not to select her. Margaret finds herself pregnant but takes the Bar exam nevertheless, shortly afterward giving birth to twins. Happy that this provides her with an instant nuclear family
for her political ends rather than expressing conventional maternal joy, Margaret then fails to win the candidacy for Smithers' seat of Orpington
but is convinced out of a brief exit from the political world by Denis when her frustration at being out off from that world soon becomes apparent.
She tries and fails to gain a candidacy at Beckenham
, Hemel Hempstead
and Maidstone
, up against old boy network
s, prejudice against her due to being a woman, a mother and a grocer's daughter and the party's preference for male war veterans
. Frustrated at the shattering of her dreams of a political career being meritocratic
, Margaret is in despair. Denis, however, suggests that she does not play by the old-boys' rules but instead uses what they perceive as her weakness (being a woman) against them. Margaret takes up her suggestion, going blonde and—through a show of tears in an interview with Kaberry, chairman of candidates—receiving information of a possible candidacy in Finchley. The seat has a safe Tory majority but its present holder John Crowder
is not managing that majority well and an alternative holder is being considered. Thatcher is shortlisted for the candidacy and, though the misogynistic Crowder tries to convince Heath (now Chief Whip
) to oppose Thatcher, she retains Kaberry's support. She hopes Denis will accompany her to the selection panel, but goes ahead without him when he cannot return from Africa in time. She reaches the final two and on the way to this final hustings silences Crowder's open contempt for her and her chances by pouring scorn on his unremarkable political career. Her speech wins over even the woman in the audience whom Crowder had primed to oppose her and Margaret wins the candidacy.
Crowder takes his complaints as to Margaret's takeover of the constituency to Heath, but Heath reveals that instead of warning the Finchley Conservatives off supporting Thatcher as Crowder had asked, he instead threatened them with dire penalties if they did not support her, partly in response to Crowder's slights against her working-class parentage (Heath's father was also working class). Crowder prophesies that, once into the House of Commons, Margaret will "never stop". Margaret then wins Finchley in the 1959 election
and arrives at the House. There, Heath avoids and ignores her and has a flashback to the Conservative ball earlier in the drama—her question is revealed to have been a request to be helped by him into parliament, to return the favour for her helping him win Bexley. He is stung by her taking credit for his win at Bexley instead of simply taking up the "hand of friendship" he had been on the verge of offering her. The film then returns to 1959 and fades on Heath walking past her (breaking off ties with her and secretly tormented by Crowder's prophesy and his own forebodings of her future career) and Margaret's impassive, steely but ambiguous reaction to this. An onscreen message then refers to her beating him in the 1975 Conservative leadership election.
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
television drama based on the early political career of the young Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
(née Roberts), from her attempts to gain a seat in Dartford in 1949 via invasion to her first successful campaign to win a parliamentary seat, Finchley
Finchley (UK Parliament constituency)
Finchley was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election; its best-known MP was Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990...
, in 1959. It also portrays her early relationship and marriage with Denis Thatcher
Denis Thatcher
Major Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD was a British businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, London, the elder child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert Thatcher, and his wife Kathleen, née Bird...
. It is directed by Niall MacCormick
Niall MacCormick
Niall MacCormick is a British film and television director.-External links:...
and written by Tony Saint
Tony Saint
Antony David Saint is an English writer.-Early life:He had contact with the theatre through the People's Theatre in Heaton. Whilst at university he was guitarist in the courageous but ultimately unsuccessful rock band The Little Caesars.In 1993, he joined the UK Immigration Service where he worked...
- it was made by Great Meadows Productions. Thatcher is played by Andrea Riseborough
Andrea Riseborough
-Early life:Riseborough grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk To Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites"....
, Denis by Rory Kinnear
Rory Kinnear
Rory Kinnear is an award-winning English actor who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre.-Early life:...
, and Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
by Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
.
It was followed in February 2009 by Margaret, a drama on Thatcher's fall from power filmed in 2008-09, with Thatcher played by Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she won two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her performance in Les Liaisons dangereuses and Private Lives , and she starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include:...
.
Production
It was announced in August 2007, and filming began in London in the summer of 2007 (the black-and-white mock-newsreel footage of Roberts' electioneering in Dartford features the Church of Christ the KingChurch of Christ the King, Bloomsbury
The Church of Christ the King is a church belonging to the Catholic Apostolic Church which is situated in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, beside Dr Williams's Library and near University College London. The church is currently used by the Anglican organisation Forward in Faith...
, and the terraced house from which she is picked up by Denis is the History Department of University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
). It was to have been aired in February 2008, but was postponed to avoid offence to its subject (a scream of "fucking establishment!" by the Thatcher character had already been cut from the drama at her supporters' request, and replaced with "Damn their establishment!").
Reception
It was eventually broadcast at 9pm on Thursday 12 June 2008. Even prior to broadcast, the drama's portrayal of Thatcher as young and flirtatious has been criticised both by her supporters and opponents (one of the latter called the casting of Riseborough as "ludicrously flattering" to Thatcher).Reception of the drama after broadcast, however, was generally positive, with particular note taken of tongue-in-cheek references to future events (Margaret promises that, were she in charge, "every child in the country would have as much milk as they wanted", as against her later reputation as "milk-snatcher Thatcher"; and the Thatcher children make remarks related to their future notoriety for an attempted African coup
2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt
The 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt, also known as the Wonga coup, was an alleged coup attempt against the government of Equatorial Guinea in order to replace President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo with exiled opposition politician Severo Moto, carried out by mercenaries and organised...
involving Mark Thatcher
Mark Thatcher
Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet is the son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Baroness Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and twin brother of Carol Thatcher...
and appearance on "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" involving Carol Thatcher
Carol Thatcher
Carol Thatcher is a British journalist, author and media personality. She is the daughter of Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, a former British Prime Minister, and Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt....
respectively). Crowder also speaks the line "A grocer's daughter. A grocer, Heath?!?" to Heath in contempt of Margaret's background, making reference to Heath's later nickname of Grocer Heath.
On 27 March 2009 The Long Walk to Finchley won 3 Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
Awards - Best Single Drama, Best Multichannel Programme and Best Actress (Andrea Riseborough)
- Observer review
- Guardian review
- Times review
- Sunday Times review
- Independent review
- Independent on Sunday review
- Telegraph review
Plot
Margaret Roberts gains a role as research chemist into ice cream, and in her spare time pursues her political ambitions with her father's help and begins her relationship with Denis Thatcher. She is nominated the ToryConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
candidate for the constituency of Dartford
Dartford (UK Parliament constituency)
-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:-Notes and references:...
in the run-up to the 1950 election
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
, and is openly optimistic despite most other Tories' opinion that no Tory can win the seat, let alone a woman. During the election campaign she meets Ted Heath, candidate for the key marginal seat of Bexley
Bexley (UK Parliament constituency)
Bexley was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Bexley district of south-east London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-History:...
. He is suspicious of her populist and publicity-seeking style, but less overtly hostile to her than more reactionary figures in the party such as Waldron Smithers
Waldron Smithers
Sir Waldron Smithers was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.Smithers was educated at Charterhouse and in France and became a member of the London Stock Exchange...
. Overall national party strategy is for Roberts to draw Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
attention away from Bexley and Chislehurst
Chislehurst (UK Parliament constituency)
Chislehurst was a parliamentary constituency in what is now the London Borough of Bromley. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
(also being fought by a woman, Patricia Hornsby-Smith
Patricia Hornsby-Smith
Margaret Patricia Hornsby-Smith, Baroness Hornsby-Smith, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.-Early life and education:...
) to enable these two key marginal seat
Marginal seat
A marginal seat, or swing seat, is a constituency held with a particularly small majority in a legislative election, generally conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat....
s to be won. This Margaret does, and Bexley and Chislehurst are duly won, but Margaret herself is beaten at Dartford by the Labour candidate (despite reducing his majority). Her relationship with Denis founders and she decides that she must improve her chances of finding a new and winnable seat. To this end she decides to leave science and study for the Bar.
At a Tory ball, Miss Hornsby-Smith engineers a meeting between Margaret and the shy and (it is implied) possibly homosexual Ted. Margaret flirts with him in an attempt to better her political career, and asks him a question which the audience does not hear (though they do hear Heath stating "we must never speak of this again"). Having failed to begin a relationship with Heath, she recommences her relationship with Denis and pre-empts and accepts his proposal of marriage. Her teetotal father accepts her choice, despite concerns over Denis's status as a non-teetotaller and a divorcé and the marriage taking place in London not their home town of Grantham. She again fails to win Dartford at the 1951 election
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
and writes to console Heath on the death of his mother, to whom he was close. Even on their honeymoon, Margaret is keen to take on a candidacy for the safe
Safe seat
A safe seat is a seat in a legislative body which is regarded as fully secured, either by a certain political party, the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both...
Tory seat of Canterbury
Canterbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Canterbury is a county constituency which has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
, but in the meantime, Heath convinces the Canterbury Conservative Association not to select her. Margaret finds herself pregnant but takes the Bar exam nevertheless, shortly afterward giving birth to twins. Happy that this provides her with an instant nuclear family
Nuclear family
Nuclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a father and mother and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have...
for her political ends rather than expressing conventional maternal joy, Margaret then fails to win the candidacy for Smithers' seat of Orpington
Orpington by-election, 1955
The Orpington by-election, 1955 was a parliamentary by-election held on 20 January 1955 for the British House of Commons constituency of Orpington in Kent, England. It followed the death of the incumbent Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Waldron Smithers...
but is convinced out of a brief exit from the political world by Denis when her frustration at being out off from that world soon becomes apparent.
She tries and fails to gain a candidacy at Beckenham
Beckenham (UK Parliament constituency)
Beckenham is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Constituency profile:...
, Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead (UK Parliament constituency)
Hemel Hempstead is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...
and Maidstone
Maidstone (UK Parliament constituency)
Maidstone was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The parliamentary borough of Maidstone returned two Members of Parliament from 1552 until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member...
, up against old boy network
Old boy network
An old boy network, or society, can refer to social and business connections among former pupils of male-only private schools. British public school students were traditionally called "boys", thus graduated students are "old boys"....
s, prejudice against her due to being a woman, a mother and a grocer's daughter and the party's preference for male war veterans
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Frustrated at the shattering of her dreams of a political career being meritocratic
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
, Margaret is in despair. Denis, however, suggests that she does not play by the old-boys' rules but instead uses what they perceive as her weakness (being a woman) against them. Margaret takes up her suggestion, going blonde and—through a show of tears in an interview with Kaberry, chairman of candidates—receiving information of a possible candidacy in Finchley. The seat has a safe Tory majority but its present holder John Crowder
John Crowder
Sir John Frederick Ellenborough Crowder was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament for Finchley from the 1935 general election until the 1959 general election, when he was succeeded by Margaret Thatcher .Crowder was educated at Eton...
is not managing that majority well and an alternative holder is being considered. Thatcher is shortlisted for the candidacy and, though the misogynistic Crowder tries to convince Heath (now Chief Whip
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...
) to oppose Thatcher, she retains Kaberry's support. She hopes Denis will accompany her to the selection panel, but goes ahead without him when he cannot return from Africa in time. She reaches the final two and on the way to this final hustings silences Crowder's open contempt for her and her chances by pouring scorn on his unremarkable political career. Her speech wins over even the woman in the audience whom Crowder had primed to oppose her and Margaret wins the candidacy.
Crowder takes his complaints as to Margaret's takeover of the constituency to Heath, but Heath reveals that instead of warning the Finchley Conservatives off supporting Thatcher as Crowder had asked, he instead threatened them with dire penalties if they did not support her, partly in response to Crowder's slights against her working-class parentage (Heath's father was also working class). Crowder prophesies that, once into the House of Commons, Margaret will "never stop". Margaret then wins Finchley in the 1959 election
United Kingdom general election, 1959
This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...
and arrives at the House. There, Heath avoids and ignores her and has a flashback to the Conservative ball earlier in the drama—her question is revealed to have been a request to be helped by him into parliament, to return the favour for her helping him win Bexley. He is stung by her taking credit for his win at Bexley instead of simply taking up the "hand of friendship" he had been on the verge of offering her. The film then returns to 1959 and fades on Heath walking past her (breaking off ties with her and secretly tormented by Crowder's prophesy and his own forebodings of her future career) and Margaret's impassive, steely but ambiguous reaction to this. An onscreen message then refers to her beating him in the 1975 Conservative leadership election.
Cast
|
Georgie Glen Georgie Glen is a prolific British actress, best known for her stage and television work. Her most notable role is as Hannah More in the 2006 film Amazing Grace. She plays John Ruskin's mother in the drama Desperate Romantics about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood... - Miss Harris James Laurenson James Laurenson is a New Zealand actor, who has performed many classical roles on stage and television.Laurenson was born in Marton, New Zealand... - Leslie Thomas Rob Edwards Robert Owen "Rob" Edwards is an English-born Welsh international footballer who plays for Barnsley as a centre back.-Aston Villa:... - Hemel Member / John Wells / Sumner Geoffrey Whitehead Geoffrey Whitehead is an English actor. He has appeared in a huge range of television, film and radio roles. In the theatre, he has played at the Shakespeare Globe, St... - Entwhislte / Lt Col Allason Kim Wall Kim Wall is an American Actress. She is probably best known for starring in the 1988 sequel Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland.-Career:... - Lichfield / Horsfield / Orpington member Jonathan Aris Jonathan Aris is a British actor who has appeared in films, television and the theatre. Aris is also a narrator for some documentaries.- Credits :Acting credits include:* Spooks * Sherlock * Being Human * Doc Martin... - Stanley Soward Jeremy Child Sir Coles John "Jeremy" Child, 3rd Baronet is an English actor.He was born in Woking, England and educated at Eton College, as well as trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. After appearing in repertory theatre, he was cast in a significant role in the 1967 film Privilege... - Langton Geoffrey Beevers Geoffrey Beevers is a British actor who has appeared in many different television roles.Beevers has worked extensively at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, both as an actor ; and as an adaptor/director of George Eliot's novel Adam Bede , for which he won a Time Out Award, and Balzac's... - Head Panellist at Finchley Elizabeth Bennett (actress) Elizabeth Bennett is a British actress.Bennett has appeared in several British TV series, including The Sandbaggers, The Bill, The Lakes, Chef!, The Duchess of Duke Street and Heartbeat. She played "Enid Thompson" in the British situation comedy Home to Roost, and played "Enid Tompkins" in the US... - Doreen / Interviewer |