513 Winston Churchill The Wilderness Years

First  viewed  : September  1981

I  only  caught  snatches  of  this  because  my  Dad  was  watching  it  but  I  got  the  general  gist.

The  eight  part  serial  covered  Churchill's  lost  decade  from  the  Conservatives'  election  defeat   in  1929  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Second  World  War  due  to  disagreements with  the  Tory leadership  over  Indian  home  rule, the  Abdication  crisis  and  rearmament  but  also  the  small-minded  Baldwin's  distrust  of  people  who  were  much  cleverer  than  himself. What  gave  it dramatic  potential  was  that  during  this  period  he  attracted  a  coterie  of  journalists, businessmen  and  schemers   of  dubious  character  most  notably  the  Irish  writer  and  fellow  MP Brendan  Bracken, well  played  by  Tim  Pigott-Smith. Churchill  himself  was  played  by  Robert Hardy  who  didn't  look  like  him  but  did  a  mean  impersonation  of  the  voice   and  odious  son Randolph  was  played by  Nigel  Havers  with  a  charm  that  did  not  correspond  to  anyone's memory  of  the  man.