Churchill - First Season

Winston Churchill, a giant of history,

famous for his inspiring leadership.

Advance Britannia.

Long live the cause of freedom.

But behind the legend lies a complicated character.

People tend to see Churchill, the icon,

Churchill, the bulldog warrior,

and of course, that's not the whole story.

He was an aristocrat

and a man of the people.

It says a lot for his charisma

and his humility that he was accepted and liked.

A trailblazer who also had questionable beliefs.

He is an old school imperialist.

He calls Indian people "the dusky nation."

This is the story of the man behind the myth,

using rarely seen footage,

personal photographs

and told by those who knew him well.

When my grandfather was at home, everything revolved around him.

Seemed to be a natural way of life.

This is the real Churchill.

This time, we'll discover how Churchill tries to seal his place in history

as Britain's greatest ever war leader.

Churchill sees this as being the role that he was born to perform.

From the powerful alliances he makes with Roosevelt and Stalin,

Churchill could be unbelievably charming

and persuasive and persistent.

To the huge personal risks he takes...

There is a real possibility that he might die.

..for victory in the Second World War.

It's Winston Churchill's second Christmas as prime minister,

and he's just arrived in America.

After more than two years of blackouts in Britain,

the festive lights of Washington, DC are a welcome sight.

But Churchill's not here on holiday.

He's here to change the course of the Second World War.

When it's announced Churchill's in town,

it's like a movie star has arrived.

An adoring American public sends him thousands of presents.

He received boxes of cigars,

I mean, he couldn't possibly have smoked them all.

He received this giant V sign in flowers.

Churchill wasn't very tall.

He was five foot six.

And this V would have dwarfed him.

The way that Britain stood alone with Churchill as its figurehead

when they themselves remained in isolation, was something that

most Americans greatly admired.

But there's one man Churchill needs to impress...

..President Franklin D Roosevelt.

Despite all the rhetoric of "we shall never surrender,"

And that's the British would ultimately be victorious

over Nazi Germany,

Churchill really doesn't have much of a plan as to how he is going

to be able to achieve victory without the United States.

Churchill has been invited to stay at the White House.

It will be his home for the next three weeks.

He took one look at this room and said, "No, no." He didn't like it

and he just started wandering the halls of the White House trying

to find a bedroom that he thought was more to his liking.

And much to the horror of the first lady.

Churchill, of course, eventually chose a bedroom that was directly

opposite the president's, and he did so, of course,

because he wanted to be as close as possible to Roosevelt.

Setting up camp as close to the president as possible

is all part of Churchill's plan.

He wants to get Roosevelt to back him in his struggle

against the Nazis.

He needs to act quickly.

America is still reeling from the Japanese attack

on Pearl Harbour just two weeks ago,

An attack that forced them

to declare war on Japan and its ally, Germany.

Churchill needs to ensure that the Americans, filled with rage

about the Japanese surprise attack,

are not going to pursue a war purely against Japan

and leave Germany to a struggling Britain.

To do that, Churchill plans to begin by building a personal relationship

with the president.

I often think it's misunderstood how important personal chemistry

is at this very high level diplomacy,

and that's certainly the case here.

And Churchill could be unbelievably charming and persuasive

and persistent.

And I think initially Roosevelt was slightly starstruck by Churchill.

Churchill insisted on setting up what he called his "map room"

in the White House so he could track the course of the war.

It had an immediate impact on Roosevelt,

who set up his own map room,

which eventually became the Situation Room in the White House,

which is still there today.

Churchill wheels the wheelchair-bound president

around the White House.

They walk in and out of each other's bedrooms the whole time.

They have conversations late into the night.

At one stage Roosevelt is wheeled in to Churchill supporters

just as Churchill's emerging naked from his bathroom.

And at least one account of it has him saying,

"You see, Mr President, the British prime minister has nothing to hide

from the American president."

And they genuinely began

to like each other.

Having enjoyed Christmas dinner with the Roosevelts,

on Boxing Day, Churchill makes his way to Capitol Hill.

He's about to make what will be one of his most important speeches

of the war.

He's been invited to address a joint meeting of Congress.

There have only been two joint meetings of Congress

ever in American history

before Churchill spoke to them.

So this is a massive honour.

There was a great deal of anticipation and excitement

and people were desperate to try to get into the

Senate chamber to be able to listen to Churchill's speech.

It was absolutely packed.

Churchill's chances of victory in Europe rest on what he says next.

After Pearl Harbour,

there remains a strong section of American public opinion

that does not want to see the United States embroiled

in the war in Europe and believes that the proper response

to Pearl Harbour should be a concentration

on the war against Japan.

So, while there is huge interest in Churchill personally,

he is aware that he doesn't yet have all of the United States public opinion behind him.

Churchill knows that popular support is critical if he's going to get

the Americans to fully back Britain against the Nazis.

Members of the Senate and guests of the Senate.

Prime Minister of Great Britain,

the Right Honourable Winston Churchill...

As Churchill approaches the microphones,

his eyes fill with tears.

One of the interesting things about Churchill as a leader

and as a public figure in this time,

is that he wasn't afraid or ashamed

to show his emotions.

This is a moment that he had been working towards and hoping for

since he became prime minister in 1940.

Churchill's post-war secretary, Lady Williams,

often saw his emotional side.

I remember he would sit there with tears pouring down his face

and he would say to me,

"You've just got to get used to it,"

seeing a man cry.

I don't want to suggest that this was just purely image making,

because he didn't just summon up tears,

but I think that the fact that he was SEEN to be deeply moved

was something which was of benefit to his image.

Even though Churchill knows how much is riding on this speech,

he begins with a joke...

Here I am, an Englishman, welcomed in your midst.

Makes this experience one of the most moving

and thrilling in my life,

which is already long

and has not been entirely uneventful.

I think there's no doubt that Churchill relished

the big occasions.

This was someone who, liked nothing better to be at the centre of events

and you don't get more central than this.

I wish, indeed, that my mother, whose memory I cherish

across the veil of years,

would have been here to see.

It's got all the hallmarks of a great Churchill speech.

He talks of the ties of blood on his mother's side.

His mother was an American heiress who came over and married

a British aristocrat.

So Churchill knows immediately that's how to plug into these people.

Churchill makes it clear that Britain and America share

a common goal.

A desire to do the right thing.

Here we are... together,

facing a group of mighty foes

who seek our ruin.

Here we are... together, defending all that to free men is dear.

What kind of a people do they think we are?

Is it possible that they do not realise

that we shall NEVER cease

to persevere against them

until they have been taught a lesson

which they and the world will never forget?

He was aware as an orator that you need your speech to build.

You can see him playing with the audience,

using his rhetorical tricks and building towards the climax.

Still, I avow my hope and faith,

sure, and inviolate

that in the days to come,

the British and American people

will for their own safety and for the good of all,

walk together in majesty,

in justice and in peace.

After just 30 minutes,

Churchill has his audience in the palm of his hand.

The applause at the end of that speech

is absolutely extraordinary.

It goes on for minute after minute, after minute.

It's quite moving.

It really gives one the sense that there is this special

relationship between the United States and Great Britain

that in many respects is still with us to this day.

A few days later, Churchill gets the best Christmas present of all...