Of all the relationships between the Queen and her prime ministers, the one with Margaret Thatcher (pictured left with the Queen) was not just the longest and the most intriguing, it was also the most misunderstood. Two women born within a year of each other - Baroness Thatcher (pictured right with the Queen) was six months older - their outlook shaped by the same childhood experiences of war, a strong Anglican faith, love of country and a shared sense of duty, yet temperamentally they were so very different. The Queen possesses a dry wit while Lady Thatcher's capacity to go on and on applied as much to her conversational style as her determination to remain in Downing Street. Even before her resignation there was an enduring fascination with the dynamic between our monarch and her first female prime minister - and it was fertile enough territory for myths to grow up, too. As the years passed, it became fashionable - certainly by those on the Left - to see the two as competitive, rivals even, amid claims that they had disagreed over key political issues during the 1980s, from the miners' strike and sanctions against South Africa to allowing U.S. war planes to bomb Libya from British military bases. The relationship is once again set to come under forensic gaze with the latest Netflix series of The Crown.