Profile: Meryl Streep

Are you sure that's Meryl? Looks more like Maggie...

It is, in fact, both – or rather the 62-year-old grande dame of Hollywood in her role as the Iron Lady in Phyllida Lloyd's forthcoming biopic. Streep has been telling Radio Times that playing Mrs T made her warm to the former Prime Minister: "Wherever you stand on her policies, and many people didn't like her, the scale of her influence and the fact that she got things done was extraordinary."

The Tories aren't happy with the film though, are they?

No, to put it mildly. One Tory MP, Rob Wilson, went so far as to call for a debate on the film in the name of "respect, good manners and good taste" while the stalwart former Conservative party chairman Lord Tebbit described Streep's portrayal as "half-hysterical" and "over-emotional". The film has also faced a bashing from the Thatcher biographer John Campbell, whose book was used as a basis for the film.

Meryl can take on the critics though, right?

Exactly, and Tory grumbles seem to be doing little to dent Streep's prospects of bagging her third Oscar with the role.

On being asked what the real Iron Lady might make of the film, Streep said: "I don't think we have given her a pass on anything but I hope that she would see that the film is made with respect."