Guest Blog: Lady Thatcher On Brexit and the DEAD SHEEP National Tour

An interview with Lady Thatcher about the national tour of Dead Sheep...

Welcome back - why are you making a comeback?

Hello dear. It is really very simple. Our country needs me more than ever. Our people need reminding, reassuring if you like, that we can prosper outside Europe, and this play puts those arguments perfectly. I've been away for far too long. "The lady's not for retiring," you might say.

It must be painful though, as the play shows how your once loyal colleague and friend Geoffrey Howe ended your Premiership with that famous speech of his.

Politics is like that, dear. The trouble with Geoffrey was that he was a treacherous, pompous, backstabbing little man who thought he was far more important than he actually was. And as for his wife Elspeth, goodness me. She hated me, you know. I'm sorry to say she features in this production. But she is not nearly as good as me, of course. I do like your handbag, by the way. Where did you get it?

BHS. There are some striking similarities in the play between the politics of that era and the current one, aren't there?

Goodness me, yes. I was saying to Denis only the other day, "Denis - you know what they say, don't you? 'History doesn't repeat itself - it rhymes.'" And goodness me, it is rhyming now. Back then the Tory Party was divided over Europe. Just as now. Back then there was appalling treachery on the part of Geoffrey. This time it was Michael Gove. And back then there was a totally unsuitable, blond, rather maverick type roaming around the place, wanting my job: that dreadful Michael Heseltine. This time it's that Boris fellow.

Has it needed much rewriting, post-Brexit?

Oh yes. I liked the original production at London's Park Theatre very much. It broke the box office record there, did you know that? But since then, we voted to leave the EU, so we've had to update it a bit.

There's a rather good new scene, I think, where Geoffrey says he thinks it would be impossible for us to leave the EU. The new line says something like "We can't just quit Europe. It would be too complicated for start. Undoing all those treaties. Like the political equivalent of reversing a vasectomy." I rather like that.

And there's another new bit where Geoffrey drones on about how we are not at war with Europe. He actually says: "This is not a war, Margaret. " I reply: "Oh but it is, Geoffrey. It's just there are no guns." That really puts him in his place. The writer is rather clever I think. I like him.

Have you forgiven Geoffrey?

Not really. How can one forgive a traitor? After all I did for him. And the country. I invented Thatcherism you know. It wasn't him: he just came up with all the detail. And the policies. And the strategy. But I invented it.

Thank you, Lady Thatcher.

Thank you, dear. You must come and see it. They say it is a tragedy with funny bits. But I don't think it's funny at all. But it is instructive. I was right, you know. All along. I was right about everything!

Jonathan Maitland's 'Dead Sheep' begins a national tour on 5 September. Full dates and venues here

Picture credit: Darren Bell