Steve Coogan reveals he asked for one scene to be cut from Thatcher drama
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Mancunian actor described himself as ‘very anti-Thatcher’. Steve Coogan has revealed that one scene in his new drama Brian and Maggie ended up being cut from the show because he thought it was “too kind” to Margaret Thatcher. In the Channel 4 drama, from Dear England and Sherwood writer James Graham, Coogan, 59, plays Brian Walden, the Labour MP turned TV interviewer who famously grilled the former prime minister in 1989, an encounter that triggered the downfall of the Iron Lady.
![[Coogan and Walter as Brian and Maggie]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/21/10/newFile-2.jpg)
Harriet Walter, 74, stars as Thatcher, who has become one of the most controversial PMs in British history thanks to her part in the death of Britain’s mining industry and her attitudes around homosexuality, which were enshrined in law through section 28, a law that prohibited local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality in schools or in the community.
Coogan, who was a 10-year-old living in Manchester when Thatcher came into power in 1979, said in a new interview: “Of course I had huge antipathy towards Thatcher. I was very anti-Thatcher.”. “In fact, in the edit we cut something because I thought it was a bit too kind and we wanted to remind people that there was this damage.”.
Coogan added: “She had vision and zeal, but she lacked empathy. Now, she’d probably be diagnosed with some sort of disorder.”. A new trailer for the series recently unveiled Walter’s transformation into Thatcher. The actor is best known for playing Lady Caroline Collingwood in Succession and Lady Margaret Pole in Wolf Hall.
