Margaret Thatcher considered bringing advertising to the BBC after becoming Prime Minister, it has been revealed.
Files in the National Archives show that Thatcher suggested the proposal for radio adverts back in September 1979, after the BBC had run a deficit of £50m.
She told Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw that she was "concerned about the extravagance of some... BBC spending".
However, Thatcher had changed her mind about the idea by November that year.
The late Pm had also proposed a tax for every new radio sold, with the money helping finance the BBC.
She also considered a law change that would see people not having to pay the licence fee if they only watched ITV.
Press secretary Bernard Ingham was among those who did not back the plans, writing: "The BBC's reputation worldwide rests in part on its integrity as an independent source of information financed without commercial sponsorship.
"To introduce commerciality could only,...
Files in the National Archives show that Thatcher suggested the proposal for radio adverts back in September 1979, after the BBC had run a deficit of £50m.
She told Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw that she was "concerned about the extravagance of some... BBC spending".
However, Thatcher had changed her mind about the idea by November that year.
The late Pm had also proposed a tax for every new radio sold, with the money helping finance the BBC.
She also considered a law change that would see people not having to pay the licence fee if they only watched ITV.
Press secretary Bernard Ingham was among those who did not back the plans, writing: "The BBC's reputation worldwide rests in part on its integrity as an independent source of information financed without commercial sponsorship.
"To introduce commerciality could only,...
- 12/30/2014
- Digital Spy
From Meryl Streep's Iron Lady to Spitting Image and the Spice Girls, Observer writers and critics pick the films, books, art, music and TV that show Thatcher's lasting influence
Art, chosen by Laura Cumming
Treatment Room (1983)
In Richard Hamilton's installation, Thatcher administered her own harsh medicine from a video above the operating table with the viewer as helpless patient: a case of kill or cure.
Taking Stock (1984)
Hans Haacke portrayed Thatcher enthroned, nose in the air like a gun-dog, surrounded by images of Queen Victoria, the Saatchi brothers and, ominously, Pandora. Caused national furore.
In the Sleep of Reason (1982)
Mark Wallinger edited Thatcher's 1982 Falklands speech from blink to blink, fading to black in between, emphasising her solipsistic tendency to close her eyes when speaking as if nobody else existed.
The Battle of Orgreave (2001)
Jeremy Deller's restaged the worst conflict of the miners' strike from multiple viewpoints, uniting...
Art, chosen by Laura Cumming
Treatment Room (1983)
In Richard Hamilton's installation, Thatcher administered her own harsh medicine from a video above the operating table with the viewer as helpless patient: a case of kill or cure.
Taking Stock (1984)
Hans Haacke portrayed Thatcher enthroned, nose in the air like a gun-dog, surrounded by images of Queen Victoria, the Saatchi brothers and, ominously, Pandora. Caused national furore.
In the Sleep of Reason (1982)
Mark Wallinger edited Thatcher's 1982 Falklands speech from blink to blink, fading to black in between, emphasising her solipsistic tendency to close her eyes when speaking as if nobody else existed.
The Battle of Orgreave (2001)
Jeremy Deller's restaged the worst conflict of the miners' strike from multiple viewpoints, uniting...
- 4/13/2013
- by Robert McCrum, Kitty Empire, Philip French, Andrew Rawnsley, Euan Ferguson
- The Guardian - Film News
One of Margaret Thatcher's former aides has criticised Meryl Streep for failing to mention the ex-British Prime Minister in her Oscars acceptance speech.
The Hollywood icon walked away with her third Academy Award after winning the Best Actress prize at Sunday's ceremony for her portrayal of the U.K.'s first female leader in The Iron Lady.
Streep thanked her husband, Don, and her Hollywood pals, but did not remember Thatcher in her emotional speech, and Lord Norman Tebbit, who served with Thatcher in government for six years, has been left fuming by the exclusion.
He tells Britain's The Sun, "I'm not at all surprised she didn't mention her.
"The film was about Meryl Streep, not Lady Thatcher. If Margaret Thatcher had been like the woman portrayed by Meryl Streep, she wouldn't have lasted six months as Prime Minister."
Meanwhile, Thatcher's former press spokesperson Sir Bernard Ingham also slammed the movie for focusing on her deteriorating health and battle with dementia.
He adds, "I don't propose to see somebody making money out of somebody's age. I think it demonstrates poor taste."...
The Hollywood icon walked away with her third Academy Award after winning the Best Actress prize at Sunday's ceremony for her portrayal of the U.K.'s first female leader in The Iron Lady.
Streep thanked her husband, Don, and her Hollywood pals, but did not remember Thatcher in her emotional speech, and Lord Norman Tebbit, who served with Thatcher in government for six years, has been left fuming by the exclusion.
He tells Britain's The Sun, "I'm not at all surprised she didn't mention her.
"The film was about Meryl Streep, not Lady Thatcher. If Margaret Thatcher had been like the woman portrayed by Meryl Streep, she wouldn't have lasted six months as Prime Minister."
Meanwhile, Thatcher's former press spokesperson Sir Bernard Ingham also slammed the movie for focusing on her deteriorating health and battle with dementia.
He adds, "I don't propose to see somebody making money out of somebody's age. I think it demonstrates poor taste."...
- 2/28/2012
- WENN
Wishy-washy and unfocused, Phyllida Lloyd's Margaret Thatcher biopic fails to embody the indomitable spirit of its subject
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: C
Margaret Thatcher was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
Structure
The Iron Lady tells its story as a series of flashbacks experienced by the ageing Thatcher (Meryl Streep), suffering from dementia and haunted by the imagined ghost of her late husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent). Streep is terrific, carrying off Thatcher in her prime and Thatcher in her dotage with equal aplomb. Regrettably, however, so much of the film's screentime has been devoted to the dotage – and so many of the flashbacks are, unlike Thatcher herself, preoccupied with her role as a wife and mother – that little time is left for the interesting stuff. A few of those who are relegated to blink-and-you'll-miss-'em status, or don't appear at all: Cecil Parkinson, Nigel Lawson,...
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: C
Margaret Thatcher was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
Structure
The Iron Lady tells its story as a series of flashbacks experienced by the ageing Thatcher (Meryl Streep), suffering from dementia and haunted by the imagined ghost of her late husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent). Streep is terrific, carrying off Thatcher in her prime and Thatcher in her dotage with equal aplomb. Regrettably, however, so much of the film's screentime has been devoted to the dotage – and so many of the flashbacks are, unlike Thatcher herself, preoccupied with her role as a wife and mother – that little time is left for the interesting stuff. A few of those who are relegated to blink-and-you'll-miss-'em status, or don't appear at all: Cecil Parkinson, Nigel Lawson,...
- 12/29/2011
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
Ask me what my favourite Scooby Doo episode is, and I'd promptly say that it's the one that takes place in the creepy mansion called What The Hex Going On. In case you haven't seen it, a guy dresses up as the ghost of Elias Kingston, a blue faced old wretch who apparently has the power to age people into skeletons (visually, he's the spit of Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham). It's great stuff, even if the villain inexplicably wears glasses underneath all the heavy make-up.
I only mention this since I've seen Ghost Light, a fortunate return to form for Doctor Who after the silly Battlefield. I don't know, Ghost Light just reminds me of Hex for some odd reason – both stories take place in a spooky old mansion with sliding doors, shadows and creepy rooms, complete with a baddie in long flowing robes wreaking havoc. Plus, the title...
I only mention this since I've seen Ghost Light, a fortunate return to form for Doctor Who after the silly Battlefield. I don't know, Ghost Light just reminds me of Hex for some odd reason – both stories take place in a spooky old mansion with sliding doors, shadows and creepy rooms, complete with a baddie in long flowing robes wreaking havoc. Plus, the title...
- 4/10/2011
- Shadowlocked
Like his characters, Robert Harris has often found himself close to news in the making. As his 'Tony Blair' novel hits the cinema, he reveals why his friendship with Roman Polanski has lasted, but his affair with New Labour has not
Tony Blair is not on record as having read Robert Harris's 2007 novel The Ghost, a rip-snorting thriller about an ostentatiously groovy ex-prime minister accused of war crimes after secretly approving the transfer of British al-Qaida suspects to Guantánamo Bay, and the ghostwriter hired to write his memoirs. Perhaps Blair got the book out on John Prescott's library card, or happened upon a copy in Silvio Berlusconi's downstairs loo. All that really matters is that he knows of the novel's existence. It was in regard to The Ghost, after all, that he described its author as "a cheeky fuck". The 53-year-old Harris chuckles so warmly...
Tony Blair is not on record as having read Robert Harris's 2007 novel The Ghost, a rip-snorting thriller about an ostentatiously groovy ex-prime minister accused of war crimes after secretly approving the transfer of British al-Qaida suspects to Guantánamo Bay, and the ghostwriter hired to write his memoirs. Perhaps Blair got the book out on John Prescott's library card, or happened upon a copy in Silvio Berlusconi's downstairs loo. All that really matters is that he knows of the novel's existence. It was in regard to The Ghost, after all, that he described its author as "a cheeky fuck". The 53-year-old Harris chuckles so warmly...
- 4/4/2010
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
A cast of respected British actors will play Margaret Thatcher's allies and deserters in an upcoming BBC Two drama charting her political downfall. Ian McDiarmid (Star Wars) has been cast as her loyal husband Denis, James Fox (A Passage To India) as foreign policy advisor Charles Powell and Robert Hardy (All Creatures Great and Small) as Willie Whitelaw. Others appearing include Philip Jackson (Poirot) as chief press secretary Bernard Ingham, Kevin McNally (Pirates Of The Caribbean) as Ken Clarke and Oliver Cotton (The Commander) as Michael Heseltine. (more)...
- 7/23/2008
- by By Dave West
- Digital Spy
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