Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was made by Southern Television on a budget of £3¼ million and originally broadcast on ITV on Sunday nights at 10 pm.[1] It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax, with historian Martin Gilbert as co-writer. Churchill was played by Robert Hardy.

Plot

Episode Title Original air date
1"Down and Out"6 September 1981
2"Politics Are Foul"13 September 1981
3"In High Places"20 September 1981
4"A Menace in The House"27 September 1981
5"The Flying Peril"4 October 1981
6"His Own Funeral"11 October 1981
7"The Long Tide of Surrender"18 October 1981
8"What Price Churchill"25 October 1981

Cast

Reception

Hardy's performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA nomination in 1982. Eric Porter as Neville Chamberlain also received praise. The series was nominated for a total of 8 BAFTA awards, namely:

Reprises

Hardy reprised the role of Churchill in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War II in 1995 when he quoted a number of Churchill's wartime speeches in character.

References

  1. 'Pick of the week's television', The Times (London, 4 Sept. 1981), xii.

External links