Paper Monitor
10:11 UK time, Wednesday, 9 February 2011
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
It is a familiar piercing glare that adorns every news-stand in the country.
The unmistakable countenance of Margaret Thatcher in her prime ministerial heyday stares out from the front pages of the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, and the Daily Express.
But a second glance reveals that the image is not of the Iron Lady at all but, in fact, the actress Meryl Streep, who is portraying the former premier in a forthcoming film.
Matthew Parris of the Times, who once worked with Mrs Thatcher, will be "brilliant" at playing his former employer.
But, unusually for the acquaintance of someone about to be boiled down to a Hollywood template, he worries that Streep's depiction will be too subtle:
Baroness Thatcher has helped the world-wide brand by playing to the caricature, as she grew older emphasising the overbearing qualities for which she was famous. She grew into the comic-strip version: the best evidence I know for a belief that she does have a sense of humour.
Of course, not all sections of Fleet Street are so enthusiastic about the prospect of Thatcher: The Movie (or The Iron Lady, as it actually will be titled).
The Daily Mirror, that most tribally Labour of titles, is horrified.
"That steely gaze is enough to chill the heart of any working man," writer Mark Jeffries no doubt composing his copy in his overalls as he sups on a half-pint of mild after yet another day's noble toil at Easington Colliery.
The Guardian is more measured in its wariness,
But he warns that, with such a deeply divisive subject, producers will need to balance the perspective of Mrs Thatcher's supporters with those who raged against her time in office:
"It will be a shame if The Iron Lady overlooks that deep anger in favour of exclusive focus on Thatcher as a woman triumphing against the odds."
The Daily Mail is concerned about the film, too, but for different reasons.
"a left-wing hatchet job or capture the spirit of a woman who transformed Britain?"
It appears that the left and right sides of Fleet Street alike will scrutinise the production closely. Perhaps Ms Streep will decide that the best way to deal with this is to not, like her subject, be for turning.
The 
