How Laurence Olivier gave Margaret Thatcher the voice that went down in history



It was the chance meeting that proved to be a vital turning point in the rise of Britain's most powerful post-war Prime Minister.

Prior to the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, her adviser Gordon Reece was travelling by train from Brighton and bumped into the legendary actor Laurence Olivier.

Mr Reece, a former journalist and television producer, had been tasked with overhauling Mrs Thatcher's dowdy image – and asked Olivier's advice about the problem of her voice, which critics considered too shrill.

Authoritative tone: The change in Margaret Thatcher's voice has been put down to speech lessons arranged by Sir Laurence Olivier following a chance meeting with her adviser

The actor arranged for her to have lessons with the speech coach at the Royal National Theatre, which helped lower her pitch and develop a calm, authoritative tone.

According to an article by Mrs Thatcher's biographer and close friend Charles Moore in next month's Vanity Fair, it was Olivier's intervention that should be credited with giving her one of the most instantly recognisable voices in modern history.



'Soon the hectoring tones of the housewife gave way to softer notes and a smoothness that seldom cracked except under extreme provocation on the floor of the House of Commons,' he writes in the piece, which marks the 20th anniversary of Mrs Thatcher's retirement from the Commons.

Mr Moore, whose authorised biography of the former Prime Minister, now 86, will be published after her death, adds: 'Margaret Thatcher was, is, and will always be a legendary figure.

Legendary: A new book says Sir Laurence's intervention should be credited with giving her one of the most recognisable voices in modern history

'For some, she is the wicked witch of selfishness and privilege.

'For many more, she is a symbol of what women can do, what the British character can be, what the Englishspeaking peoples stand for and what Conservatism is.'

He paints her as a unique individual who relished the company of powerful men and enjoyed being a woman although she had little time for others of her own sex.

She also had far less confidence in her own appearance than was imagined because of the criticism she attracted when she first rose to prominence. Her clothes were considered fussy and frumpy and her crooked teeth were often noted by the media.



Mrs Thatcher also allowed Mr Reece – whom Mr Moore describes as 'a jolly, champagne-drinking former television producer with a knowledge of television sorely lacking in the Tory Party' – to make over her appearance, straightening her teeth, getting rid of her blouses adorned with fussy bows and generally casting aside hats.

Throughout her time in power, she used her handbags, usually black, sturdy and expensive, as a symbol of her strength, using them to carry documents such as quotations by Abraham Lincoln to pull out and read for the television cameras.

Mr Moore writes of her delight when her nickname 'The Iron Lady' was coined in 1979 by the Soviet Red Army newspaper Red Star.



Instantly recognising the boost to be gained from such a strong epithet, she referred to it in another speech, saying: 'I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved, the Iron Lady of the Western world.

The man responsible: Gordon Recce was charged with improve Mrs Thatcher's dowdy image

'A Cold War warrior, an Amazon philistine, even a Peking plotter. Well, am I any of these things? Yes – if that's how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life.'



Yet she was content to take a traditional role in her marriage, putting her husband Denis's needs first and deferring to him on the subjects of money, sports and the choice of school for their son, Mark.



She loved the company of the opposite sex, often expressing her admiration for 'real' or 'great men'. Those she found enchanting were usually slim and attractive, including US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.



Yet she regarded women as superior. In 1982 she said: 'In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.'



According to the Vanity Fair piece, she has never wholly recovered from losing power in 1990. When she was approaching 80 and experiencing problems with her memory, she described to Mr Moore the layout of 10 Downing Street.

