Movies - The Gathering Storm

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	Movies - The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm is a BAFTA and Emmy award winning BBC television biographical movie about Winston Churchill's life in the years just prior to World War II.

It was produced by Ridley Scott, and starred Albert Finney as Churchill, and Vanessa Redgrave as his wife Clementine Churchill ("Clemmie"); Finney gained many accolades for what has come to be regarded as a definitive portrayal of Churchill. The film also features a stellar supporting cast of popular British actors such as Derek Jacobi, Ronnie Barker, Jim Broadbent, Tom Wilkinson and Celia Imrie.

The film opens in 1937 with Winston Churchill 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 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 back bencher to get a hearing for his concerns about German re-armament under Hitler and the policy of appeasement.

Churchill is also disappointed by the behaviour of his son Randolph, 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 (played by Linus Roache) has become concerned about the growth of the German air-force, and is convinced by his wife to leak information about it to Churchill. (Although Wigram really did provide information to Churchill, he was one of many who did so; Churchill's biographer, Martin Gilbert, estimated that there were more than twenty, although he credited Wigram as one of the three main players. The film's director, Richard Loncraine, said that "in reality there were four `Wigrams' - two Army officers and two civil servants. It would be cinematographically inept to have four people doing the same thing. What we did was leave out the other three characters." )

Shortly afterward, Churchill uses Wigram's information to launch an attack on the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin (played by 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 naval rating who informs him the fleet have already been signalled that "Winston is Back". To which Churchill replied "He bloody well is! "

The title of the film is the same as the title of the first volume of Churchill's largely autobiographical six-volume history of the war. This volume covered the period 1919 to 10 May 1940, the day he became prime minister.

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