Margaret Thatcher visits Coronation Street - when soap opera and real life merge

[RandallAdams]

Margaret Thatcher's father was called Alfred Roberts and he ran a grocer's shop in her hometown of Grantham, eventually becoming the town's mayor. On Coronation Street, there was a character called Alfred Roberts who ran a grocer's shop and later became the Mayor of Weatherfield. In Thatcher's visit to the set during her final year as Prime Minister, she stands outside the fictional Alf's shop, and the lines between soap opera and real life suddenly blur. The cast were later criticised during her Rovers reception for fawning over Thatcher, even though Coronation Street was supposed to represent working class Britain and the very interests and concerns which her policies were accused of decimating.