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Press Releases
Andrea Riseborough, Samuel West and Rory Kinnear star in Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk To Finchley
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Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley is Great Meadow Productions' first wholly independent commission from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
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Commissioned for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four by Jane Tranter, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Controller, Fiction, this light-hearted and imaginative single film delves under the skin of the Iron Lady for the first time, taking a look at her early political career.
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Focussing on the young Margaret Thatcher's steely determination to get selected to a "winnable" Tory seat in the Fifties, successful novelist and TV newcomer, Tony Saint's script imagines what might have gone on behind the scenes during her ten–year struggle as she was rejected by a succession of five home counties Tory selection committees until – against considerable local opposition – she was finally selected for the seat that she became identified with for the rest of her political career.
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"... the Conservatives of Finchley and Friern Barnet have armed themselves with a new weapon – a clever woman."
– Finchley Press
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Julie Gardner, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Head of Drama Wales, says: "We are delighted to be working with Great Meadow Productions on a drama by writer Tony Saint which shines the spotlight on the private and public life of Margaret Thatcher, and follows the successful single dramas on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four including Fantabulosa and The Alan Clark Diaries."
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Great Meadow Productions' Executive Producers Robert Cooper and Kate Triggs add: "Whatever your views about Margaret Thatcher, she changed the country we live in irrevocably. And yet she remains something of an enigma.
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"Although she is, arguably, the best known living Briton, we hardly know her as a person at all. Tony Saint's witty, humorous and imaginative script portrays her as a living, breathing young woman up against that most conservative of all institutions – the British Tory Party."
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The cast list includes rising stars Andrea Riseborough (Party Animals) as Margaret; Rory Kinnear (Mansfield Park) as husband Denis; Geoffrey Palmer (As Time Goes By) as her nemesis, Sir John Crowder; Oliver Ford-Davis (Star Wars) plays high-ranking Conservative MP Sir Donald Kaberry; and Samuel West (Cambridge Spies) is fellow future Prime Minister, Ted Heath.
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Great Meadows Productions' other recent credits include the award-winning Bradford Riots for Channel 4 and the critically acclaimed Messiah for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
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Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley follows in the rich footsteps of previous ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four dramas including The Alan Clark Diaries, Fear Of Fanny, Miss Marie Lloyd: Queen Of The Music Hall and the award-winning Fantabulosa.
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Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley is written by Tony Saint (Whistleblowers).
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The director is Niall MacCormick (Party Animals, Transit), producer Madonna Baptiste (Soundproof, Secret Life) and executive producers are Robert Cooper and Kate Triggs for Great Meadow Productions and Bethan Jones for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
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Filming begins in London in August.
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AF
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