Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows is the follow up show to the hugely successful show Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho, which told the story of what happened when Margaret Thatcher gets lost in Soho on the eve of the Section 28 vote and becomes a cabaret superstar.
‘Queen of Game Shows’ follows on with Maggie moving in to light entertainment in this riotously interactive feast of comedy, cabaret and games. This show has the music, the dancing, the comedy and the drag with some new cameos and added games with audience participation.
Thanks for joining us Mrs T. We hear you’re heading down to the Southbank and then up to Edinburgh this summer, are you trying to upstage Theresa May?
Usually yes dear! But this year she appears to be doing that herself. She’s alienated more old people with her social care policy than the BBC did when they stopped showing Diagnosis Murder. But I for one hope she stays on as Prime Minister…It means I won’t have to rewrite all those jokes about her.
And all this started because one night you took a trip to Soho? Tell us about that?
Oh, I think people have heard quite enough about the time I got lost in Soho and accidentally became a global cabaret superstar. What they want to hear about is how I stopped being a global cabaret superstar in order to become the GREATEST GAME SHOW HOST OF ALL TIME (™). I was watching ITV one night but changed the channel when they started playing a triple bill of Pride, Brassed Off and Billy Elliot and I found myself watching ‘Challenge TV’. It was a revelation, I saw all the great game show hosts of the past – Cilla, Brucie and the rest of them who are now in jail – and I thought… They’re rubbish! I could do a better job than them! And here I am.
What can people expect to see when they come to see you?
A glittery crowd pleasing spectacle inspired by all of those game shows you loved as a child all packed together into a 70 minute politically savvy extravaganza presented by the Greatest Female Prime Minister of all time with the best legs in show business. Plus songs.
The Lady’s not for turning, but your show is always evolving, how do you decide what to include?
The real question is ‘what haven’t we included?’ We’ve got Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Merkel, Owen Jones and everyone’s favourite facilitator of the global apocalypse (via a certain American President) Nigel Farage. Quite simply it’s like a Tory manifesto – there’s something for everyone. Also much like a Tory manifesto we make a lot of it up as we go along.
You’ve been particularly popular in Edinburgh, which is strange as the Scots have never been your biggest fans, what have you done to change their minds?
This will be my 4th year at the Fringe and I love it. Had I known then that Scotland was such a marvellous place I never would have treated them so badly. I’ve taken Nicola out for cocktails by way of an apology – I had one called ‘ Milk Snatcher’ and she had one called ‘Independence Referendum’, and true to form as soon as she’d finished the first one she was asking for another.
Finally, Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn?
What a cruel question. That’s like asking which is my favourite child, except in a world where I actually like both of my children and not just one of them (hello Mark, dear!).
Basically, Theresa May is a weak, flip flopping, authoritarian Brexiteer who’s run the worst election campaign in recent history and has about as much respect for the British electorate as a dog does for someone’s leg whilst trying to impregnate it. But on the other hand… Jeremy Corbyn once forgot a number on Women’s Hour and sometimes doesn’t wear a tie. It’s an impossible choice to make!
Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows will be at Underbelly Festival Southbank in London from 28th June – 2nd July, before the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Assembly George Square Gardens from 3rd – 27th August 2017.
Margaret Thatcher is played by Matt Tedford, and co-writer and creator Jon Brittain recently won an Olivier for his play Rotterdam.
