The Young Margaret Thatcher.
I know I have been unfair to Meryl Streep and she doesn't like it; she wrote and told me so; she said I have 'rained on her parade' – I jest of course. She will go from success to success and win loads of plaudits no matter what I say; or not.
Not many people have disagreed with me - in fact nobody has; there may be some of you who do disagree but have better things to do than to write to me about it; and I don't blame you.
My big problem with the fact that Meryl Streep is playing Margaret Thatcher is a class thing; there is something rotten in the state of Denmark and in this case 'Denmark' being Britain. The rottenness being that very same class system that we all know and love. It makes drama, comedy, literature and lots of other type of plots and stories (if there are any), interesting.
The biggest thing that stood in the way of Margaret Thatcher, being the first British woman Prime Minister in Britain, wasn't the fact that she was a women, but that she was from the lower middle classes; that strange accent she spoke, with the strange vowels and Churchillian cadences was the first false thing about her and that's what the upper classes would hate.
This accent and voice, to Meryl Streep, probably sounds posh. Probably sounds as posh as the Queen when it really is below 'RP' (Received Pronunciation); RP is how the newscasters used to sound on the BBC – in other words posh. The way Laurence Olivier sounded, Rex Harrison, David Niven and all the other posh actors – not quite upper class but posh.
I say 'used to sound' as most of the newscasters these days are Celts; it's less offensive and grating to the general ear than the old style. So now they sound like Richard Burton or Sean Connery – without the lisp.
Also when you call the BBC these days, in London, the phone is answered by a phone bank in the north of England with an accent from up there and they say 'BBC Switchbard' instead of 'BBC Switchboard.'
There's nothing wrong with the accent, in fact I love the Geordie accent, but not to answer the phone for the BBC!!! Pulleeaase!!!
Now I don't think the subtlety in the accents and the difference between one and the other would mean anything to Meryl Streep, and whilst the majority of the people who view the film wouldn't know either, it is still a relevant plot trigger to the Thatcher ascendency.
The men in grey suits, who run Britain, must have been appalled when Thatcher suddenly came on the scene, but they saw in her someone that could do the things they wanted;: get rid of the unions, bring the Chicago school of economics to Britain via Keith Joseph, who also worshipped Milton Friedman, who lead it with his cronies, work wonders for the stock market – just as they said about Hitler - and invent the poll tax.
So from what I have heard about the film it isn't about class at all; it's a typical rags to riches, against all odds, Hollywood type of movie and Thatcher wasn't really that kind of hero - if a hero at all.
And I think there is a film to be made about her and how she was used, abused and dropped.
Believe me I am not a fan of hers and I never voted for her but I will have to see the film one of the days as I have said enough about it – and her.
And that's my last word on the subject and here's my favourite interpretation:
So could you give examples of people who had the true upper-class accent? Not only posh, but upper class.
ReplyDeleteYes David Niven for one. Polite too and well mannered. Julian Fellowes was also bred to it but Roger Moore's posh accent was acquired.
ReplyDeletePrince Charles speaks with a kind of South Kensington accent as does the art critic Brian Sewell.
You can hear these people on You Tube I should think.
I saw the film last weekend (Netflix) and admittedly am not qualified to critique Streep's accent, in part because I snoozed through a good 20 minutes of the movie, and in part because of my own all-American Mid-western pronunciation of "English," but Streep is rightly renowned for the veracity of her accents and even I can tell you that her accent (and her acting, alas) in The Iron Lady was unconvincing. The whole picture uncentered and at the end I wasn't clear on what I was supposed to be understanding about Thatcher from it, except perhaps that she was a woman who deeply loved her husband. Whether this was even true or not I don't know. It was the least satisfying of all Streep's movies, that I can say.
ReplyDeleteWell she did love her husband and he loved her. She was also smitten with her son Mark who was a bad man - still is. Tried to organize a coup somewhere, tried to take advantage of his mother's name and was nearly put in gaol.
ReplyDeleteBut I am biased; I hated Thatcher, what she stood for and what she did. She in turn hated foreigners, trains and had no sense of humour. With regards to Meryl Streep: she was bound to get an Oscar for this and from little things I heard whilst living in Hollywood only took the role for the chance of an Oscar which she has stipulated before taking other roles. Stipulating that the producers campaign for her to be nominated and then campaign again.
Being good at accents is the least important thing about acting but I have to say I liked her performance as the old Mrs Thatcher.