From the disturbing but surreal to the just plain scary, writes Andy Toft.

This week started with a bizarre introduction to nine Maggie Thatcher-alikes – stars of a new musical dedicated to the former Prime Minister.

The real iron lady may be a formidable woman but meeting her would surely pale into tame insignificance compared to being ushered into a room where nine larger-than life Thatcher impersonators were lying in wait.

I was rather hoping to go unnoticed as I tried to film a little candid footage of the cast of Thatcher – The Musical having their photograph taken.

But the moment the nine-headed Thatcher-beast spotted my camera it turned its shrill-voiced attention to me, demanding to know who I was and where I was from.

And even when two of the cast members agreed to step in front of my lens they insisted on staying in character throughout, ordering me to hurry up while I was checking light and sound levels.

Their reproduction of the Thatcher look and sound made for easily the most disconcerting interview I have conducted on video so far.

The musical hits The Grand Theatre next week and is sure to bring back vivid memories of a particularly turbulent period in recent British history.

Nothing divides opinion quite like an assessment of the Thatcher years – but I wonder how many people would swap them for the increasingly alarming times we now live in.

Today I was dispatched to Birmingham to cover the terror raids which saw eight men arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and behead a British soldier.

This threat of terrorism from within our own population is the most disturbing feature of life in early 21st century Britain.

It comes from an enemy, that as I saw today, exists right on our doorstep – anonymously going about its business in unremarkable residential streets.

Some will argue that the IRA was just as big a threat to security during the Thatcher years.

That may nor may not be true.

But the major difference is that this modern day terrorism has no clearly defined objective, no obvious political goal.

Without those elements it is difficult to secure even a distant view of some kind of resolution.

And that is just plain scary.

Andy Toft is the Express & Star’s video journalist. Read other entries in his blog by clicking here

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