Airdate: The Gathering Storm

Good Wife producers Ridley & Tony Scott produce a telemovie on Winston Churchill, with Albert Finney in the lead role.

The star cast also includes Vanessa Redgrave, Linus Roache and Derek Jacobi.

Oddly enough this HBO-BBC telemovie will go up against The Good Wife in the same timeslot.

The film opens in 1934 with Winston Churchill (Albert Finney) deep in his wilderness years, and struggling to complete his biography of his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough, which he hopes will revive his fortunes. Winston is chided by his wife Clemmie (Vanessa Redgrave) for their lack of money and is aware that as a ‘man of destiny’ his moment may have passed. At the same time he struggles in the House of Commons as a backbencher to get a hearing for his concerns about German rearmament under Hitler and the policy of appeasement.

Churchill is also disappointed by the behaviour of his son Randolph Churchill (Tom Hiddleston), which leads to further arguments with Clemmie, who announces she is leaving to go on an extended overseas trip. Churchill is devastated and throws himself into his pet activities: painting, and building walls around the family house. Clemmie eventually returns, and the couple are reconciled.

During the same period, a young official in the government, Ralph Wigram (Linus Roache) has become concerned about the growth of the German Luftwaffe (air force), and is convinced by his wife to leak information about it to Churchill.

Shortly afterwards, Churchill uses Wigram’s information to launch an attack on Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (Derek Jacobi).

With Churchill’s fortunes restored, the narrative jumps forward to September 1939, with the declaration of war against Germany at the start of World War II, and the announcement that Churchill will be taking over command of the Royal Navy again as First Lord of the Admiralty. An impatient Churchill bids farewell to the staff at the country house, and travels to London. Arriving in the middle of the night at the Admiralty, Churchill is met by a Royal Marine corporal who informs him the fleet have already been signalled that ‘Winston is back’, to which Churchill replies, “He bloody well is!”

It airs 8:35pm Sunday May 30th on ABC1.