Let's start this news report off by saying that Gillian Anderson is a fantastic actor, and you only need to look at her work on the likes of 'The X-Files', 'The Fall', 'American Gods' and her impressive body of work in theatre as well.

In short, she's a talented actor and will no doubt play a blinder as (sigh) Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season of 'The Crown'. Confirming the news with an official statement, Anderson said that she was "excited" to be playing such "a complicated and controversial woman."

Yes, that's one of putting it. Complicated and controversial.

Moving on, Anderson went on to add that she is "relishing exploring beneath the surface and, dare I say, falling in love with the icon who, whether loved or despised, defined an era."

Well, if for nothing else, she's aware of that fact. Margaret Thatcher is utterly despised in large chunks of England, Scotland, Wales and - naturally - here in Ireland. Why's that, you might be asking? Let's look at her relationship with Ireland, specifically.

Thatcher allowed ten hunger strikers to die in the Maze in 1981 because she would not recognise them as prisoners of war. Ireland also tried to stop the Falklands War at a UN level after the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano, killing 368 Argentine sailors on Thatcher's orders. Members of her government were incensed by Ireland's attempts to intervene to stop further bloodshed.

Unsealed documents, released under the thirty-year rule, also described how Thatcher called the Irish "a drain on the United Kingdom", and believed that reunification would cause "civil war" and would spread to "the mainland", in her words. The documents also discussed how Thatcher believed Irish people came to the United Kingdom looking for "housing and services," and that she wished they wouldn't.

So, yes, good luck with trying to "falling in love with the icon", Gillian Anderson.