Scarfe's mighty pen

Gerald Scarfe: Heroes And Villains

Thatcher rises up from her shallow grave like a Fury hellbent on revenge. She may have taunted young William Hague with the gag that backfired - her immortal line that 'mummy's back' - but here she's definitely in the final stages of implosion.

Thatcher was a gift to political cartoonists, and you can tell that Gerald Scarfe is a seasoned Maggie practitioner.

But some people don't lend themselves so easily to the caricaturist's pen. The name of one particular tabloid hero is helpfully emblazoned on a pair of wings - like Icarus, he is about to fly too close to The Sun. Otherwise, how else would we spot Beckham's blandly well-proportioned face in those squashed features and that positively Punch-like jaw?

It's a tall order to come up with something fresh, witty and apposite for the 35 well-known figures Scarfe has selected from the National Portrait Gallery's collection. But he bravely tries to get a new angle on Henry VIII (pictured) and a warts-and-all Oliver Cromwell. He has a good stab at Tracey Emin too, sitting on a toilet, one cavernous nostril like the mouth of a trumpet.

But it's Oswald Mosley who gets my vote. Mosley was tall, thin and rangy of limb, and Scarfe deflates the fascist ideologue with a very British sense of the ridiculous: his arms, legs and body are turned into a swastika, putting Mosley firmly alongside John Cleese in the school of funny walks. Fisun G¸ner

Until April 4, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place WC2, daily 10am to 6pm (Thu and Fri to 9pm), free. Tel: 020 7306 0055.

Tube: Leicester Square/Charing Cross