Margaret Thatcher's family are appalled that the script for a new movie on their mother shows Meryl Streep playing Thatcher at the beginning of the film as an old lady suffering from dementia.

She is shown talking to herself and unaware that her husband, Sir Denis Thatcher, has passed away.

Thatcher has two children, Mark and Carol.

“Sir Mark and Carol are appalled at what they have learnt about the film,” a friend of the family told the Daily Telegraph. “They think it sounds like some Left-wing fantasy. They feel strongly about it, but will not speak publicly for fear of giving it more publicity."

Cameron McCracken, the managing director of the film-maker Pathé, confirms: "It is true that the film is set in the recent past and that Baroness Thatcher does look back on both the triumphs and the lows of her extraordinary career.

"It is a film about power and the price that is paid for power. In that sense, it is the story of every person who has ever had to balance their private life with their public career."

He stated Thatcher's health "will be “treated with appropriate sensitivity”. He adds of the film: “Although fictional, it will be fair and accurate.”