Not even Doctor Who could repel Margaret Thatcher

From 1987 to 1989 episodes of Doctor Who were laced with anti government sentiment in an attempt to bring about the downfall of conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, according to the then doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy.

McCoy, now 66, who took over as the Doctor three months after Thatcher’s third election victory in 1987, said they brought politics into the show “deliberately” but “very quietly”. He said: “We were a group of politically motivated people and it seemed the right thing to do. “Our feeling was that Margaret Thatcher was far more terrifying than any monster the Doctor had encountered,” he told the Sunday Times.

It was a ploy that apparently backfired though. Ratings for Doctor Who became so low during this period that the show was axed in 1989.