Drama at Beeb over Thatcher films

Admirers of Lady Thatcher, brace yourselves. The BBC is producing two films on the Iron Lady - both, of course, controversial.

The first is called simply Margaret, and it portrays Lady T, who is now 82, as a humourless obsessive who even believed that she had a chance of remaining in office without the backing of her party before she was eventually forced to stand down in 1990. In the film, the actress playing her, Lindsay Duncan, says: "This country elected me prime minister. I should carry on as prime minister. Damn the party. I could do that. I could remain prime minister and damn them. Could I do that? I mean carry on as prime minister and let them get whoever they want to lead their damned party?"

The second film, called Mrs Thatcher, The Long Walk to Finchley, deals with her early life and stars the beauteous Andrea Risborough. The director, Tony Saint, has already had to drop one scene, in which the young Margaret used the F-word. And it looks like further changes are being made - the drama had been due to air on BBC4 in February, but has been delayed until June. "They really are clueless," says my source at the BBC, "This was 1950s Britain. People didn't walk around talking like Gordon Ramsay."