The new season of The Crown was released on Netflix recently. I watched it with my family this weekend. While the show has always taken liberties with precise details, I feel they really missed the mark with their portrayal of Margaret Thatcher. The portrayal was far too campy, which to be fair is not hard to do considering Mrs. Thatcher’s fabricated voice and mannerisms were in and of themselves campy. The vocal affectation gave the impression that Mrs. Thatcher spent her entire life with laryngitis, which even five minutes on YouTube would refute. Then there’s the demeanor and body language: in real life Mrs. Thatcher was imposing with a regal and almost frenetic carriage. The Crown made her appear like a zombie in drag or some dressed up sea hag (though I’m sure some people felt that way about her)—I kept waiting for her to tip over or just completely deflate.

I actually thought Gillian Anderson's interpretation of Margaret Thatcher was very good. Thatcher certainly had that awkward gait, possibly because of her slight stoop. Anderson said she had to be careful with the voice as it could have easily slipped into caricature. Mrs Thatcher lowered her voice on advice, and without the use of a voice coach, apparently, and she may have even damaged her vocal chords in the process:
https://www.workingvoices.com/insights/ ... hing-myth/

If you read Hugo Vickers analysis and RadioTimes, they took large liberties with lots of details. I enjoy it, but look up the facts. I was amazed they put Anne at the Olympics in 1980, when it was the 1976 games she appeared.

Braybuddy wrote:

Anderson said she had to be careful with the voice as it could have easily slipped into caricature. Mrs Thatcher lowered her voice on advice, and without the use of a voice coach, apparently, and she may have even damaged her vocal chords in the process:

In my opinion, she failed in that regard. The tone and the meter are largely off. In all, ghoulish and camp. Personally, I think Meryl Streep did a more restrained, more accurate depiction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgqQsFvyMM vs. the real Maggie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oua4dzuVLI0

luckyone wrote:

In my opinion, she failed in that regard. The tone and the meter are largely off. In all, ghoulish and camp. Personally, I think Meryl Streep did a more restrained, more accurate depiction.

Well, there's only one Meryl Streep! I have to agree though. My main problem with Gillian Anderson is that she doesn't really LOOK like Margaret Thatcher -- her face is too long. Meryl Streep's makeover was superb (as well as her performance).

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

If you read Hugo Vickers analysis and RadioTimes, they took large liberties with lots of details. I enjoy it, but look up the facts. I was amazed they put Anne at the Olympics in 1980, when it was the 1976 games she appeared.

I don't know why the do that. There is clearly a lot of "dramatic licence", which is just an excuse for making it up. Peter Morgan would have had a lot of input from people close to the coalface, yet some of the scenes are clearly works of complete fiction, verging on caricature.

luckyone wrote:

Braybuddy wrote:

Anderson said she had to be careful with the voice as it could have easily slipped into caricature. Mrs Thatcher lowered her voice on advice, and without the use of a voice coach, apparently, and she may have even damaged her vocal chords in the process:

In my opinion, she failed in that regard. The tone and the meter are largely off. In all, ghoulish and camp. Personally, I think Meryl Streep did a more restrained, more accurate depiction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgqQsFvyMM vs. the real Maggie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oua4dzuVLI0

I think the problem is that her voice changed over the years, and Anderson ended up using the much later, raspier voice in the early 80s which wasn't accurate, as shown in your videos.

bgm wrote:

luckyone wrote:

Braybuddy wrote:

Anderson said she had to be careful with the voice as it could have easily slipped into caricature. Mrs Thatcher lowered her voice on advice, and without the use of a voice coach, apparently, and she may have even damaged her vocal chords in the process:

In my opinion, she failed in that regard. The tone and the meter are largely off. In all, ghoulish and camp. Personally, I think Meryl Streep did a more restrained, more accurate depiction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgqQsFvyMM vs. the real Maggie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oua4dzuVLI0

I think the problem is that her voice changed over the years, and Anderson ended up using the much later, raspier voice in the early 80s which wasn't accurate, as shown in your videos.

Her facial expressions were all wrong, too, as noted by another user. The big pouty mouth made her look liked a hollowed-out ghoul.

hmm, interesting comments. I thought Gillian did a really good job of bring the ghost of the Iron Lady to the screen. I never liked the Iron Lady she purposely shut women down thinking them all too emotional. I also didn't like that she married for money to further her career, having a blaring favorite child. The Queen on the other hand was quite unemotional , maybe that was a good thing for that time period.