MUMBAI: A mix of documentaries and discussion programmes examining the impact Margaret Thatcher in Britain and around the world are to be telecast by BBC World News over the weekend.

The programmes aim to cover the life and work of Britain?s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who breathed her last on 8 April 2013.

Andrew Marr will presents ?Margaret Thatcher: Britain?s Iron Lady? which sees family, friends and former colleagues ? as well as political opponents ? recall Baroness Thatcher?s life, her personality and her years in power. This will air on 13 April at 7.40 am and 8.40 pm; and on 14 April at 2.40 pm.

In ?The Rise and Fall of Margaret Thatcher?, BBC presenter Martha Kearney charts the unlikely rise of the grocer?s daughter who became Britain?s most famous Prime Minister. In this documentary Kearney reflects on Thatcher?s bitter downfall at the hands of her colleagues in government, a betrayal she never recovered from. It will air on 13 April at 6.00 pm and 14 April at 1.00 pm.

BBC World News will also broadcast a special edition of the current affairs programme ?Newsnight?, which will examine the impact of her policies both in the UK and abroad through insights from those who worked with and against her. The programme includes an interview with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who discusses her international role.

?Dateline London?, which brings together foreign correspondents based in London to give an outsider?s view of events in the UK, will host a special discussion considering reaction to Baroness Thatcher?s passing. This edition will be presented by Maxine Mawhinney of BBC News, and will feature journalists from Le Monde, Sunday Telegraph and Bloomberg.

MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch has praised the ?brave leadership? of the late former British PM Margaret Thatcher. In an opinion column in the ?Times? newspaper, Murdoch praised Baroness Thatcher?s role in facing down the trade unions in the 1980s.

"I found her attitude an inspiration to my business life - and never more so than when faced with the recalcitrance of the print unions in the 1980s. She ended a culture of crippling strikes, she encouraged entrepreneurs to come here and set up their businesses. Thanks to her I have experienced in Britain many of my defining moments as a businessman."

"Mrs Thatcher understood that risk was a vital ingredient in a free enterprise society. She understood that such a society had to be led by a government with backbone. After the Second World War, in which the country lost a second generation of its finest men, Britain had created a dependency state. It killed off aspiration.

"In 1979 Margaret Thatcher set about its rehabilitation. She put the economy on a sound footing, she ended a culture of crippling strikes, she encouraged entrepreneurs to come here and set up their businesses. Thanks to her I have experienced in Britain many of my defining moments as a businessman, a Britain that is far more successful as a result of her brave leadership."