The Crown season 4: Did Margaret Thatcher’s son go missing as shown in episode 4 of Netflix show?

Thatcher’s reserve is shown to be severely knocked following the news

Thanks to The Crown, people are learning new facts about British history.

The new season of Netflix’s hit drama charts events from 1977 to 1990, including Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as prime minister and Charles and Diana’s marriage.

Thatcher is played by Gillian Anderson, which has left some viewers feeling quite “conflicted”, and the show’s fourth episode depicts the 1983 disappearance of her son, Mark (Freddie Fox).

Mark went missing while motorcar racing during the Paris-Dakar rally alongside his French co-driver, Anne-Charlotte Verney, and their mechanic.

Thatcher's son did indeed go missing for six in the desert. However, the prime minister's biographer says the show’s timing of it happening “just as the Falklands were invaded” is not true. 

In fact, Thatcher’s biographer, Charles Moore, wrote in The Telegraph: “There are several such significant fact-skewings in the fourth season” largely involving the show’s political events.

The episode claims that news of his disappearance saw Thatcher visibly struggle in front of her cabinet members. It suggests that he was her favourite child much to the chagrin of her daughter, Carol (Rebecca Humphries), who believes her mother mollycoddled her twin brother.

Corroborating this somewhat,  The Times wrote in a profile of Mark in 1986: “The Thatchers have been a close family and Mrs Thatcher has an especially soft spot for her son.”

Also, The Times was told by Larrain Goldstein, the owner of a handbag boutique in Russell Square’s imperial Hotel, that she saw Thatcher “stumble and cry” after discovering the news.  

Thatcher also cancelled some appointments  and retired to Downing Street as the search for Mark continued.

Find a rundown of the new season’s accuracy here.