The BBC is to make a landmark documentary series about Baroness Thatcher which will “reignite the debate” about her political legacy.

The corporation, which has faced many accusations of bias against the former Tory leader, said the programme would offer a balanced appraisal of a “compelling” and “divisive” figure.

Released next year to mark the 40th anniversary of Lady Thatcher’s election as Prime Minister, the five-part series will ask why “she repeatedly tops opinion polls when ordinary British people are asked to name both our worst, and our greatest, post-war leader”.

It will feature commentary from political friends and foes, alongside testimony from the citizens from every corner of Britain whose lives would be altered forever by the powerful shifts she brought about."

With the working title Thatcher, the “deeply personal, genuinely revelatory” film will seek “to reignite the debate around one of the most influential but controversial political figures of our times”.

The programme will be made by the BBC’s in-house documentary department. Its creative director, Aysha Rafaele, said: “Whether we love it or hate it, we all live in a world created by Margaret Thatcher.”

There was no love lost between Lady Thatcher and the BBC.

The former director-general, Mark Thompson, once admitted that “staff were quite mystified by the early years of Thatcher”.