Tracking Down Maggie

One of the many questions i'm left to ponder is why i continued watching until the end!?!

Nick Broomfield is a one-man masterclass in documentary film-making. In this feature length film, Broomfield aims high as he attempts to track down and interview Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher amidst rumours of her son's shady arms deals. Will he succeed? Not if the Mi5 and secret service have their way.

If you're looking for an insightful documentary about Maggie Thatcher and her years at no.10 Downing Street, then this one will be of very little use to you. Instead, you should look no further than the BBC's excellent four-parter  Thatcher: The Downing Street Years [VHS] [1993 ], although it is unfortunately only available on video tape.Channel 4's 'Tracking Down Maggie' was televised in 1994, amd centres around Nick Broomfield's failed attempts to bag an interview with The Iron Lady, who he tails during her visit America at the time to plug her first autobiography 'The Downing Street Years'. He used what were, quite frankly. desperate measures to track his subject down, but alas, to no avail whatsoever (though he does get within speaking distance to her, but Thatcher isn't prepared to talk). It is this unsuccessful result though, that makes this a very amusing and thoroughly entertaining film.There are some interesting historical bits and pieces, including interviews with Maggie's former school chums and colleagues from every point of her remarkable life. Some of these tales are quite amusing, none more so than trying to visualise the first female Prime Minister of Britain performing a duet of 'Baby it’s Cold Outside' at a Christmas works party. Also, did you know that Maggie appeared on radio's 'Desert Island Discs', and chose Rolf Harris' 'Two Little Boys' as one of her all-time favourite records? (Who knows what she'd think if she'd have lived to have become ware of what he, and her friend Saville were getting up to, and got away with for so long.Thatcher's precious son Mark comes across very badly in this film, as the facts of his alleged 'activities' involving a certain arms deal are exposed by Broomfield. "She thinks he's wonderful. He's a very rude young man" says a former friend of Thatcher's, with a laugh followed by a mischievous grin on her face. The documentary also addresses how Mrs. Thatcher always seemed to have more time for her son than she did for her seemingly lovely daughter Carol.Nick Broomfield was clearly not a Thatcher fan, but this only adds to the comedy this film has. I did laugh a lot during 'Tracking Down Maggie', and would happily watch it again, which I have. You don't have to have any respect for this woman at all to be able to appreciate this one, quite the reverse in fact.