‘The Crown’ Season 4 Episode 4: Where is Margaret Thatcher's ‘favorite’ son Mark now? Here's how he went ‘missing’
Mothers and sons have an inexplicable bond... ‘The Crown’ poignantly touches upon that in Episode 4, ‘Favourites’, when Margaret Thatcher finds herself uncharacteristically distracted after her son Mark goes missing in the desert while competing in the Paris Dakar Rally. Her maternal affection and anxiety for her son’s well-being impede her ability to run the country in the way she is used to.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, she gave birth to twins — Carol and Mark — on 15 August 1953. In the episode, she first confesses to Queen Elizabeth II how her son is her favorite among her twins. “He has been competing in the Paris-Dakar car rally. He and his teammates had driven through France, crossed in Algeria and into the Sahara Desert. The last sighting was at a checkpoint in a village in Algeria two days ago. Since then, nothing.” She then wipes off the tears rolling down her cheeks.
This leads us to wonder, who is Margaret Thatcher's son Mark, where is he now and did he really go missing during the 1982 Paris-Dakar rally?
Who is Mark Thatcher and where is he now?
Born to Margaret Thatcher and Sir Denis Thatcher, Sir Mark Thatcher — the twin brother of Carol Thatcher — was also known as Second Baronet after he succeeded to the Thatcher baronetcy after his father's death in 2003. Mark was sent to board at Belmont School at the age of eight and then studied at Harrow School, which he left in 1971. He went on to study accountancy but failed his accountancy exams with Touche Ross on three occasions.
Passionate about racing, he moved to Hong Kong and built a network of business connections, particularly in the Middle East and in motor racing. In 1977 he set up Mark Thatcher Racing, which ran into financial difficulties.
His early businesses were riddled with scandals, especially in connection with the Al-Yamamah arms deal. After having lived in the United States, Switzerland, Monaco, South Africa, Gibraltar, Barbados, Guernsey and Spain, his wealth was estimated at £79 million, mostly in offshore accounts.
Did you know he was convicted and given a four-year suspended prison sentence and a fine in South Africa for funding the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt in 2004?
First married to Diane Burgdorf, he had two children. In 2008, he got married to Sarah Jane Russell. Currently, at age 67, he was last in the news in 2016 when historic documents relating to Thatcher and Oman, expected to be released under the 30-year rule, were retained by the Government.
Did he really go missing?
On January 9, 1982, Mark was stranded in the heart of Sahara Desert for six days along with his French co-driver, Anne-Charlotte Verney, while driving a Peugeot 504 in the Paris-Dakar Rally. A large-scale search was launched after his father Denis flew to Dakar, including six military aircraft from three countries and Algerian ground troops. When he was warned before heading out, he said, “I've now raced in Le Mans and other things – this rally is no problem.”
He was spotted on January 14 by the Algerian military 50 km (31 miles) off course and caused international embarrassment to his mother. In fact, Thatcher insisted on paying £2,000 ($2,639) personally towards the cost of the search, and an unpaid 11,500 dinar hotel bill, one-third of which was for drinks, caused diplomatic embarrassment.
Confessing it was a mistake, Mark penned down in 2004, “I did absolutely no preparation. Nothing. I did half a day's testing and the day after that we were driving out of the Place de la Concorde in Paris. I was thinking, OK, I wonder how this is going to go? I soon found out. By day three we are in the desert on long, long stages, spending hours aiming at something very small on the horizon."
"Unfortunately, the Peugeot 504 was the very worst car to do the trip in. It was a very long-wheelbase car, and what you need is a short-wheelbase car because of all the bumps. I remembering thinking, two days before we stopped, that this could all go very badly wrong.” He added, “Having said that, it's still a dangerous event and I can't remember a year when someone wasn't killed.”
How does it impact The Queen?
The Queen, aware of her situation, was sympathetic to this display of humanity but Thatcher's obvious preference for her son over her daughter, leads the monarch to question who her own favorite child is. In fact, on the show, she confesses her favorite could be Prince Andrew.
After meeting with each one, she finds them all wanting and comes to the painful realization that she has failed as a mother. What legacy is she leaving the country with such heirs? Will the monarchy be able to survive without her steady hand? However, she finds consolation in the fact that she has also had to play mother to the nation and as it appears Britain is moving closer to war in the Falklands, it is a role she must continue playing without flinching.
Catch all 10 episodes of ‘The Crown’ Season 4 once they drop on November 15, 2020, on Netflix.