TV giants go to war over new Margaret Thatcher biopic with The Crown star set to play late Prime Minister
A FOURTH TV biopic is being made about former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — and insiders claim it is poised to fill the void left by The Crown.
The latest to be announced — currently unnamed — will see the Iron Lady played by Lesley Manville, who was Princess Margaret in the last two series of Netflix’s royal drama.
It follows Channel 4’s decision to commission “Brian and Margaret”, which tells of the professional relationship between journalist Brian Walden and the Tory ex-PM.
Dame Harriet Walter — Winston Churchill’s wife Clementine in The Crown — will play Maggie.
Mammoth Screen, which created BBC’s Poldark, has been working on a production since last year.
A top writer is said to be backing the fourth under development.
Neither is likely to be available to view until 2025.
The latest venture, setting out to tell the story of 1979 to 1990 PM Mrs Thatcher, who died aged 87 in 2013, will dedicate different episodes to the eras of her life.
The Crown adopted the same approach in chronicling Queen Elizabeth II’s time from princess through to her years as monarch.
A TV insider said: “This is a high-class production that would comprehensively examine Maggie’s rise and fall in politics.
“It’s already being talked about as being a replacement for The Crown because, similar to The Queen’s depiction in the Netflix show, it combines her private life with that of statecraft.
“It’s yet to be snapped up by a channel or streamer so expect a bidding war to break out before it reaches our screens.
“There’s a very real hunger for all things Thatcher just now.
“She’s a fascinating figure and the feeling is that enough time has elapsed since she was PM to enable writers to depict her more objectively.”
It will not be the first time Manville has played Maggie — she portrayed her in 2009 Channel 4 docu-drama The Queen — nor the first time rival media giants have made shows on the same subject.
Prime Video and Netflix are this year showing dramas about Prince Andrew’s car crash Newsnight interview in 2019, while the BBC and Sky are re-telling the story of the 1988 Lockerbie airline disaster.