Cultural depictions of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

Cultural depictions of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom have become commonplace since the term's first use in 1905.^[1][2] However, they have been applied to prime ministers who were in office before the first use of the term. They are listed here chronologically from the date of first appointment as prime minister.

David Lloyd George

"Lloyd George Knew My Father" is a well-known ditty, with the lyrics "Lloyd George knew my father/Father knew Lloyd George" repeated incessantly to the tune of "Onward, Christian Soldiers". The origin and meaning of the song are disputed.^[3][4]

A feature film, The Life Story of David Lloyd George, was made in 1918 by Ideal Films, suppressed, rediscovered in 1994, and first shown in 1996.^[5] Norman Page played the role of Lloyd George.

Richard Attenborough's 1972 film Young Winston features Lloyd George as a character, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins.^[6]

A television series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George was made in 1981. Philip Madoc played Lloyd George.^[7]

In the Irish historical television film The Treaty, Lloyd George was played by Ian Bannen.

In the movie Hard Day's Night in the police station, at 1 hour and 8 minutes, the police chief tells the character playing Paul McCartney's father "Put Lloyd George over there!"

Bonar Law

Bonar Law is briefly mentioned several times in Ken Follett's historical novel Fall of Giants (Book One of the Century Trilogy).

Bonar Law plays a supporting, if off-screen, role in Upstairs, Downstairs. He is even said to have recommended family patriarch, Richard Bellamy, to be offered a peerage.

His name was referenced by Julian and Sandy in Round the Horne, in a sketch called "Bona Law".

Rebecca West's novel Sunflower features a portrait of Bonar Law as the statesman Hurrell.^[8]

Arnold Bennett's novel Lord Raingo features Bonar Law as the chancellor of the exchequer Hasper Clews.

Lord Dunsany gently satirised the quiet way in which government decisions are made that affect many, but with little input from the many affected, in his short story The Pearly Beach. It begins "We couldn't remember, any of us at the Club, who it was that first invented the twopenny stamp on cheques. There were eight or nine of us there, and not one of us could put a name to him. Of course, a lot of us knew, but we'd all forgotten it. And that started us talking of the tricks memory plays..." (The name they were groping for was that of Bonar Law.)

Stanley Baldwin

Baldwin has been portrayed in the following film and television productions:

• The Forsyte Saga (1967 adaptation), played by Ralph Michael
• The Woman I Love (1972), played by Robert Douglas
• Days of Hope (1975), played by Brian Hayes
• Edward & Mrs Simpson (1978), played by David Waller
• The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981), played by Paul Curran
• Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), played by Peter Barkworth
• The Woman He Loved (1988), played by David Waller
• You Rang, M'Lord? (1991), played by Patrick Blackwell
• The Gathering Storm (2002), played by Derek Jacobi
• Wallis & Edward (2005), played by Richard Johnson
• The King's Speech (2010), played by Anthony Andrews
• W.E. (2011), played by Geoffrey Palmer

Ramsay MacDonald

In Howard Spring's 1940 novel Fame is the Spur, later made into a 1947 film and a 1982 TV adaptation, the lead character Hamer Shawcross loosely resembles MacDonald; it is the story of a working-class Labour politician seduced by power into betraying his class.^[9]

In Gandhi he is portrayed by Terrence Hardiman.

In Graham Greene's 1934 novel It's a Battlefield, Ramsay MacDonald's name repeatedly appears in newspapers and on billboards in reference to a visit to Lossiemouth. He is also mentioned and featured in Noël Coward's film, "This Happy Breed".

In the twenty-fourth episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, original footage of Ramsay MacDonald entering No. 10 Downing Street is followed by a black and white film of MacDonald (played by Michael Palin) doing a striptease, revealing garter belt, suspender and stockings.

Winston Churchill

Clement Attlee

Literature

Clement Attlee composed this limerick about himself to demonstrate how he was often underestimated:^[10]

Few thought he was even a starter.
There were many who thought themselves smarter.
But he finished PM,
CH and OM,
An earl and a Knight of the Garter.

An alternative version also exists, which may reflect Attlee's use of English more closely:^[11]

There were few who thought him a starter,
Many who thought themselves smarter.
But he ended PM,
CH and OM,
an Earl and a Knight of the Garter.

Drama

Anthony Eden

Literature

Eden appears as a character in James P. Hogan's science-fiction novel The Proteus Operation.

In Harry Turtledove's novel, The Big Switch, Eden appears as a member of a group of disgruntled MPs who are gathered together by Ronald Cartland after Britain allies with Germany in mid-1940.

In Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series of alternate history science-fiction novels, Eden first appears as the representative of the United Kingdom at the peace talks with the alien Race in Cairo. As it does not have nuclear weapons at that point in the story, the United Kingdom is not fully recognised by the Race, but is also too powerful for them to fully discount. Eden attempts to secure full recognition of the United Kingdom by the Race, but fails. Atvar, the Race's commander, notes that Eden is highly competent but attempting to negotiate from a position of weakness. In the succeeding series, Colonization, Eden is Prime Minister in 1962, leading a government which cultivates close relations with the German Reich. When Germany and the Race go to war, Eden refuses to lend British military assistance to the Reich, though formally supports German efforts against the Race.

Music

Eden is mentioned in a song by The Kinks, "She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina", from the album Arthur (1969).

Plays

Eden appears as a character in the play Never So Good (2008)—portrayed as a hysterical, pill-addicted wreck, spying on members of his own Cabinet by ordering government chauffeurs to report on their comings and goings. He is shown being overwhelmed by the chaos of the Suez Crisis and eventually forced out of office by his Conservative Party colleagues, at the urging of the American government.

He also appeared in Peter Morgan's stage play The Audience (2013); in the premiere, he was played by Michael Elwyn).^[12] In the 2015 West End revival version, featuring Kristin Scott Thomas as the Queen, Eden is portrayed by Scottish actor David Robb. His scene in the play is a prediction of Eden's audience with the Queen the day before the invasion of Anglo-French forces in Egypt. The conversation that takes place features Eden attempting to feed selected information to the Queen rather than the whole facts about the Suez crisis and the Queen's reaction to the proposed invasion. In the play's 2015 rewrite, the Queen makes reference to Tony Blair, seen in a flashback, and his proposal to send troops to Iraq, likening it to the conversation she'd had with Eden 50 years previously about Suez.

Television

As Secretary of State for War in 1940, Eden authorised the setting-up of the Local Defence Volunteers (soon renamed the Home Guard). In the film of the TV sitcom Dad's Army, the (fictional) Walmington-on-Sea platoon is formed in response to Eden's radio broadcast. The debonair Sergeant Wilson takes enormous pride in being often said to resemble Eden.

Eden is portrayed by Jeremy Northam in the Netflix television series The Crown.^[13]

Eden is portrayed by Anthony Calf in the BBC television series Upstairs Downstairs (2010 edition).

In one episode of The Honeymooners, Ed Norton mentions that Anthony Eden would not have been able to join the Raccoon Lodge due to the Lodge's membership requirements.

The first season of the UK TV series The Hour revolves around the Suez Crisis and the effect of journalism and censorship on the public's perception of Eden and his government, as a metaphor for modern Western military involvement in the Middle East.

Harold Macmillan

Beyond the Fringe (1960–66)

During his premiership in the early 1960s Macmillan was savagely satirised for his alleged decrepitude by the comedian Peter Cook in the stage review Beyond the Fringe.^[14] 'Even when insulted to his face attending the show,' a biographer notes, 'Macmillan felt it was better to be mocked than ignored.'^[15] One of the sketches was revived by Cook for television.

Suez 1956 (1979)

Richard Vernon stars as Macmillan, with Michael Gough as Eden, in a three-hour-and-ten-minute BBC television play by Ian Curteis.^[16]

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981)

Macmillan appears as a supporting character, played by Ian Collier, in the 1981 miniseries Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years produced by Southern Television for ITV.

A Letter of Resignation (1997–98)

Set in 1963 during the Profumo scandal, Hugh Whitemore's play A Letter of Resignation, first staged at the Comedy Theatre in October 1997, dramatises the occasion when Macmillan, staying with friends in Scotland, received a political bombshell, the letter of resignation from Profumo, his war minister.

Edward Fox portrayed Macmillan with uncanny accuracy, but the play also explores the involvement of MI5 and the troubled relationship between Macmillan and his wife (Clare Higgins) who had made no secret of her adultery with the wayward Tory MP, Robert Boothby. The play was directed by Christopher Morahan.

Eden's Empire (2006)

Macmillan was played by Kevin Quarmby in Gemma Fairlie's production of James Graham's play Eden's Empire at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2006.

Never So Good (2008)

Never So Good is a four-act play by Howard Brenton, a portrait of Macmillan against a back-drop of fading Empire, two world wars, the Suez crisis, adultery and Tory politics at the Ritz.

Brenton paints the portrait of a brilliant, witty but complex man, tragically out of kilter with his times, an Old Etonian who eventually loses his way in a world of shifting values.

The play premiered at the National Theatre in March 2008, directed by Howard Davies with Jeremy Irons as Macmillan.

The Crown (2016)

Macmillan is portrayed by Anton Lesser in the Netflix series The Crown.^[17]

Harold Wilson

Television

• In the Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans", Basil blames his fire extinguisher exploding in his face on "... bloody Wilson"
• The Lavender List (2006), played by Kenneth Cranham – a BBC Four fictionalised account by Francis Wheen of the Wilson Government of 1974–76, with Gina McKee as Marcia Williams and Celia Imrie as Wilson's wife. The play concentrated on Wilson and Williams' relationship and her conflict with the Downing Street Press Secretary Joe Haines.
• The Plot Against Harold Wilson (2006), played by James Bolam – aired on BBC Two on Thursday 16 March. The drama detailed previously unseen evidence that rogue elements of MI5 and the British military plotted to take down the Labour Government, believing Wilson to be a Soviet spy.
• Longford (2006), played by Robert Pugh – Channel 4 drama on the life of Lord Longford. In one scene, Wilson was seen dismissing Longford from his cabinet in 1968, in part because of the adverse publicity the latter was receiving for his public campaign to support the Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.
• The Queen a 2009 British drama-documentary showing Queen Elizabeth II – Harold Wilson was portrayed by Philip Jackson.
• Mrs Brown's Boys. In one episode, Agnes explains to daughter Cathy that she had too many children to find time to photograph them all, adding, "I was in labour longer than feckin Harold Wilson."

Film

• The Boat That Rocked (2009), played by Stephen Moore (character not actually addressed or credited by name, only as 'Prime Minister')
• Made in Dagenham (2010), played by John Sessions

Other

• The Beatles reference both Harold Wilson and Edward Heath in their song "Taxman" (1966)
• A viking in the Asterix story Asterix and the Great Crossing (1975) is named Haraldwilssen, and shares his physical features
• The Audience (stage play, 2013, played in the premiere production by Richard McCabe)

James Callaghan

The song "Time for Truth" from The Jam's debut album, In the City, a scathing critique of the state of the British nation, directly addresses Callaghan: "I think it's time for truth, and the truth is you lost, Uncle Jimmy."

The Callaghan Library at Ruskin College, Oxford is named after Callaghan. The library was opened in 2011: the ceremony was attended by James Callaghan's son Michael and grandson Joe, the latter being a student at the college.^[18]

The vote of no confidence that led to the 1979 general election is a plot point in the first episode of the second series of Utopia.

Margaret Thatcher

John Major

See: Category:Cultural depictions of John Major

Tony Blair

Gordon Brown

See: Category:Cultural depictions of Gordon Brown

References