Off-the-record lunches, handwritten notes, and a bouquet of red roses mark Rupert Murdoch’s secret friendship with Britain’s most controversial prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Thatcher helped drive Rupert to become the most powerful media mogul in the Commonwealth.
Together they stoked wars against enemies, both foreign and within and with Thatcher’s support, Rupert pulled off his most daring piece of business, and arguably the cruellest.
In this episode of Rupert: The Last Mogul, Paddy Manning pieces together the evidence that binds the two together and examines the scars they left behind.
Speaking to Roy Greenslade – a journalist who worked at a number of British newspapers before ending up back at The Sun, Paddy asks what he thought Thatcher saw in Rupert.
“I think that they saw in each other a mirror image and that drew them together,” Greenslade said.
“They both shared the view that regulated economies didn’t work so well, that it was better to endorse the free market.
“I think that was deep in Rupert’s DNA and very definitely deep on Margaret Thatcher’s DNA.”
Paddy Manning joined Tom Tilley on The Briefing; this time talking about Rupert’s son, Lachlan Murdoch. Listen here:
Describing the pair’s interest in one another is just the tip of the iceberg of Paddy’s deep dive into their relationship.
Paddy looks through archives containing millions of documents, diary notes and records – unveiling Rupert and Thatcher were much closer than they ever admitted.
You can find out what some of these documents said and what Rupert and Thatcher hoped to gain from each other in Rupert: The Last Mogul’s fourth episode, “My dear Prime Minister”.