Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK.
On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised greater individual liberty, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike. In 1986, Thatcher oversaw the deregulation of UK financial markets, leading to an economic boom, in what came to be known as the Big Bang.
Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership, and was succeeded by John Major, her chancellor of the Exchequer. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87.
A polarising figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain; the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be debated into the 21st century.
Photos
Movies (76)
Kenny Dalglish
2025 · Self (archive footage) - Former British PM
Unforgotten: The Bradford City Fire
2025 · Self (archive footage)
Striking with Pride: United at the Coalface
2024 · Self (archive footage)
Strike: An Uncivil War
2024 · Self (archive footage)
A Very British Sex Scandal: The Love Child & the Secretary
2024 · Self (archive footage)
In the Grip of Gazprom
2023 · Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Her Majesty's Prime Ministers: John Major
2023 · Self (archive footage)
The Real Spies Among Friends
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Nazi Hunters: The Real Walk-In
2022 · Self (archive Footage)
Kids' TV: The Surprising Story
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Margaret Thatcher: Serving the Crown
2022 · Self
Thatcher's Not Dead
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Prelúdio
2022 · Self (archive footage)
McEnroe
2022 · Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ice Under His Feet
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Freddie Mercury: The Final Act
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Thatcher vs The Miners: The Battle for Britain
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Influence
2020 · Self (archive footage)
1979: Big Bang of the Present
2019 · Self - Politician (archive footage)
Laboratory Greece
2019 · Self (archive footage)
England 79
2019
Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks
2019 · Self (archive footage)
Breakpoint: A Counter History of Progress
2019 · Self (archive footage)
Meeting Gorbachev
2019 · Self (archive Footage)
Brexit
2019 · Self (archive footage)
I, Dolours
2018 · Self (Archive Footage)
Hong Kong: Retrocession Generation
2017 · Self (archive footage)
The Swap
2016 · Self (voice)
Shadow World
2016 · Self - Politician (archive footage)
How to Win the US Presidency
2016 · Self (archive footage)
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach
2016 · Self (archive footage)
Hillsborough
2016 · Self (archive Footage)
The 90s: Ten Years That Changed the World
2015 · Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Emperor's New Clothes
2015 · Self (archive footage)
Laissez-faire
2015 · Self (archive footage)
Soul Boys of the Western World
2014
Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary
2013 · Self
Maggie and Me
2013 · Self (Archive Footage)
Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister
2013 · Self
Margaret Thatcher: The Woman Who Changed Britain
2013 · Self
Palme
2012 · Self (archive footage)
Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady
2012 · Herself
Reagan
2011 · Self (archive footage)
The Lady is Not for Turning: An Unauthorized Story on Margaret Thatcher
2011
Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics
2010 · Self (archive footage)
How to Win the TV Debate
2010 · Self (archive footage)
The Shock Doctrine
2009 · Self (archive footage)
Portillo on Thatcher
2008 · Self (Archive Footage)
The New Ten Commandments
2008 · Self (archive footage)
Margaret Thatcher, l'enfance d'un chef
2007 · Self
How to Be an Ex-Prime Minister
2007 · Self
Best Ever Spitting Image
2006 · Self (archive footage)
The Dark Side of Porn: The Real Animal Farm
2006 · (archive footage)
Remembering Reagan at His Ranch
2004 · Self (archive footage)
In Search of Tony Blair
2004 · Self (Archive Footage)
The Downing Street Patient
2004 · Self (archive footage)
Strike: When Britain Went to War
2003
Cabinet Confidential
2001 · Self
The Pinochet Case
2001 · Self (archive footage)
Blackadder: Back & Forth
1999 · Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Reagan
1998 · Self
Degeneration Punk
1997
How to Be Prime Minister
1996 · Self
Odd Man Out: A Film Portrait of Enoch Powell
1995 · Self
Satans mördare
1995 · Self
Empire of the Censors
1995 · Self
Westminster's Secret Service
1995 · Self (Archive Footage)
The Falklands War: The Untold Story
1987 · Self (archive footage)
The Englishwoman's Wardrobe
1986 · Self
Rockin' Ronnie
1986 · Self (archive footage)
To Kill the Cabinet
1986 · Self (archive footage)
Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade
1985 · Self - Video Message
The Red and the Blue
1983 · Self (uncredited)
Let Poland Be Poland
1982 · Self
Rude Boy
1980 · Self
TV shows (26)
Chernóbil: en el corazón del desastre
2026 · Self (archive footage)
Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game
2024 · Self (archive footage)
Miners' Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain
2024
Lockerbie
2023 · Self (archive footage)
Endgame in Ireland
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Rise Up: Protests that Changed the World
2020
Historia: Nivel 1
2020 · Self (archive footage)
The Troubles: A Secret History
2019 · Self (archive footage)
Thatcher: A Very British Revolution
2019 · Self (archive footage)
紫荆花开
2017
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
2007 · Self (archive footage)
The Century of the Self
2002 · Self (archive footage)
The Secret Rulers of the World
2001 · Self (archive footage)
The Wilderness Years
1995 · Self (Archive Footage)
Wasted Windfall
1994 · Self
Thatcher: The Downing Street Years
1993 · Self
The Lowdown
1988
Dispatches
1987
Informe especial
1984 · Self (archive footage)
Wogan
1982 · Self
40 Minutes
1981
TV Eye
1978
Val Meets The VIPS
1973 · Self - Guest
Weekend World
1972 · Self (archive footage)
World in Action
1963
Panorama
1953