Margaret Thatcher killed by IRA in alternative reality of Apple TV+'s 'For All Mankind'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for season 3 of For All Mankind

The former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher is killed by the IRA in a reimagining of 20th-century events in the opening historical montage of the acclaimed Apple TV+ show For All Mankind.

The show, starring Joel Kinnaman, focuses on an alternative reality where humanity's space exploration missions reached their full potential much earlier than what has even been experienced today after the Soviet Union managed to land on the Moon before the United States.

Although the show primarily focuses on NASA's missions to the Moon and beyond it also looks at how history has changed in this reality. For instance in previous seasons Ronald Reagan became president sooner, Prince Charles and Princess Diana didn't get married and John Lennon didn't die after getting shot.

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At the start of the first episode of season 3, which is now set in the early 1990s we get a glimpse of the alternative world events that have transpired between the end of season 2 and the new season in a news montage.

These include Democrat Gary Hart succeeding Reagan as president, Michael Jordan not being drafted to the Chicago Bulls, Diego Maradona's famed 'Hand of God' goal being ruled out, The Beatles reuniting and communism thriving in the Soviet Union and eventually spreading to Latin America and Mexico.

Perhaps the boldest inclusion in this scene is a newspaper headline informing us that the ex-Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher was assassinated by the IRA in 1984. The show does not divulge any further information than that and doesn't mention who succeeded her in Downing Street.

Thatcher's death in the show is a reference to an actual attempt made on her life in 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where that year's Conservative Party conference was held, by the IRA. Five people did die in the attack but Thatcher survived without any injuries and still gave her planned speech at the conference the next morning.

This isn't the first time the bombing has been depicted in popular culture. The incident was also featured in the Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep. as well as the novels High Dive and In the Morning, I'll Be Gone.

Thatcher served as prime minister until November 1990. She passed away in April 2013, aged 87.

For All Mankind is now available to watch on Apple TV.

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