Margaret Thatcher (13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was the real-life Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century. She was the first female Prime Minister, and one of three women to ascend to the office so far.
She appeared in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, portrayed by actress and impressionist Janet Brown. English actor John Wells (who had previously made a cameo appearance in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale) played her real life husband Denis.
Biography[]
For Your Eyes Only (film)[]
While James Bond and Melina Havelock were spending a romantic evening aboard her father's yacht, they were interrupted by a communique being sent out from Q and Bill Tanner via his wristwatch. Rather than exchanging pleasantries, Bond gave the watch to Havelock's talking parrot Max, who is inadvertently put through to the Prime Minister, who wished to personally congratulate 007 for completing his mission. While Bond and Havelock went skinny-dipping, the parrot conversed with the Prime Minister, which was brought to an abrupt halt when the bird proceeded to repeatedly ask Thatcher for a kiss, leading to Q cutting the line.
Trivia[]
- She's obviously based on the real Margaret Thatcher.
- Thatcher is the only British Prime Minister and World Leader so far to be portrayed by someone else and to appear in a Bond Film. The Prime Minister is mentioned by M in Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall though not by name.
- Thatcher appears in the John Gardner Bond novel Scorpius, where Bond saves her life from an assassination attempt. In a later Gardner novel, Win, Lose or Die, Bond meets Thatcher again who thanks him for saving her life.
- Assuming that Bond was born in 1921 as described by Ian Fleming, Bond would have been in his mid-60's when this happened - after the statutory retirement age of 45 referred to in Moonraker demonstrating Gardner's chronology differing from Fleming's.
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