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Harriet Walter’s impressive transformation into Margaret Thatcher revealed in new series

New drama depicts the 45-minute showdown interview between former prime minister and journalist Brian Walden in 1989

Ellie Muir
Friday 10 January 2025 12:54 GMT
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(Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)

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Harriet Walter’s transformation into Margaret Thatcher for a forthcoming Channel 4 drama has been revealed in a new trailer.

Walter, 74, known for her roles in Ted Lasso, Succession and Killing Eve, stars in Brian and Maggie, a two-part dramatisation of the last ever TV interview between Thatcher and politician-turned-journalist Brian Walden (Steve Coogan) in 1989.

Waldon was said to be Thatcher’s favourite interviewer, but this all changed after their final interview when it became one of the most infamous political TV showdowns of all time and culminated in the end of their friendship. They never spoke again.

The pair locked horns and the 45-minute interview, which went on to become a national talking point and was part of a series of events that led to Thatcher’s resignation in 1990.

In the first trailer for the two-parter, Walter embodies Thatcher’s mannerisms and helmet-style hairdo and can be seen wearing the prime minister’s high-neck blouses, pearl necklaces and decorative brooches.

In one scene, Walter’s Thatcher tells Coogan’s Walden: “One day, someone will come for me,” to which he replies: “I reckon there’s no one you wouldn’t be able to see off, Margaret.”

Harriet Walter as Margaret Thatcher in ‘Brian and Maggie’
Harriet Walter as Margaret Thatcher in ‘Brian and Maggie’ (Channel 4 / Getty Images)

The landmark interview came after Chancellor Nigel Lawson resigned over Thatcher’s unwillingness to sack her economics adviser, Sir Alan Walters. While Thatcher’s interview with Waldon had been planned for months, Walden brought up the topic in the interview, which made for a heated conversation.

Waldon famously delivered the line: “You come over as being someone who one of your backbenchers said is slightly off her trolley, authoritarian, domineering, refusing to listen to anybody else – why? Why cannot you publicly project what you have just told me is your private character?”

‘Brian and Maggie’ trailer

Thatcher replied: “Brian, if anyone’s coming over as domineering in this interview, it’s you.”

At the time, British political writer John Campbell observed that Walden’s “journalistic instinct and her lack of candour made for a devastating exposé, watched by three million people with their Sunday lunch”.

Harriet Walter in new Channel 4 drama ‘Brian and Maggie’
Harriet Walter in new Channel 4 drama ‘Brian and Maggie’ (Channel 4)

Speaking ahead of the show’s launch, Walter admitted she had to “travel a great distance” to embody Thatcher, but achieved it with the help of the show’s writer James Graham (Sherwood) and director Stephen Frears (A Very English Scandal).

Coogan said: “It’s great to be telling a story from the era of the sorely missed forensic interview – two giants of their time locking horns to determine the future of Britain. To act opposite Harriet Walter with a script by James Graham directed by Stephen Frears is a challenge of the very best kind.”

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