There are plenty of insider interviews in Margaret Thatcher’s authorised biographer’s uncritical, traditional-feeling documentary. But you can’t help chuckling at its dated format
What happens when the BBC rids itself of all the woke lefties and liberal snowflakes who pollute the airwaves with their jokes and nonsense? It might look a little like Thatcher & Reagan: A Very Special Relationship (BBC Two), a respectful, if not particularly thrilling, two-part documentary that tells the story of the eight years during which the two leaders ruled their nations at the same time. It is written and presented by Charles Moore, former editor of the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator, who also wrote all three volumes of Margaret Thatcher’s authorised biography.
This first episode covers Thatcher’s rise to power, Ronald Reagan’s inauguration and the Falklands war, with a bit of nuclear wrangling thrown-in for good measure. Moore argues that the pair had the vision and time in office to imagine an end to the cold war that had been simmering for more than 30 years, and which most world leaders saw as something to accept, rather than attempt to change. Reagan and Thatcher were dedicated cold war warriors, Moore suggests, who worked together to stand up to the Soviet Union, and in doing so changed the course of history. “They saw the beginning of the end of the cold war, as the world emerged from the shadow of nuclear Armageddon,” he says, to a television audience still facing a 24-hour news cycle comprised of east-west tensions and the shadow of nuclear Armageddon. Perhaps the documentary was made last summer.
