It is the ultimate tribute to Lady Thatcher. Next week’s premiere of Iron Man 3, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jnr, has been pushed back from Wednesday to Thursday so as not to clash with Lady Thatcher’s funeral.
The Iron Lady’s funeral procession will begin in Westminster and will travel through the heart of London before arriving at St Paul’s. Due to the large crowds expected, the police and Westminster council feared that having to co-ordinate the additional complication of monster movie premiere trucks rolling up outside the Odeon Leicester Square would prove a logistical nightmare. Disney offered to move the premiere to the Thursday night and the cast, who also include Rebecca Hall and Don Cheadle, have been most accommodating.
A metallic nickname is not the only quality that Iron Man and his female counterpart share. They both fought crime, possessed superhuman strength and durability (Lady Thatcher served three terms as PM and needed only four hours sleep a night) and possessed a dazzling array of weapons, with the Iron Lady overseeing the launch of the Trident missile programme.
The original Iron Man, conceived in 1963, was a comic-book hero seen as a Cold War symbol of American might. Iron Man might even have won the respect of Lady Thatcher, had she had the slightest clue who he was.
