Customer Reviews
Fascinating but Flawed - By: F. S. L'hoir, 29 Jan 2008 
This series held my interest from beginning to end. How could it miss with such a monumental protagonist & such absorbing subject matter. I especiallly liked Nigel Havers as Randolph, & the actors who played Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay McDonald, & Clement Atlee. I am afraid that I am less enthusiastic about Sian Phillips, who always plays Sian Phillips, & who, in my estimation, managed to make Clemmie rather unpleasant (almost as unpleasant as Phillips, appropriately, made Livia Augusta in "I Claudius."). As for Robert Hardy, he does an on-target impression of Sir Winston Churchill, but I think that he was misdirected.
Did Sir Winston reallly orate twenty-four-seven? Surely he spoke in a more modulated voice with the family around the dining room table [when he wasn't shouting at Randolph] or in the privacy of his bedroom! In this production, he addresses his "dear Clemmie" in his "fight-them-on-the-beaches" persona, to such an extent that Hardy's portrayal sometimes slips into parody. But again, I believe that the fault must be laid at the door of the director.
This quibble aside, the production is excellent. The recreation of the scenes in the House of Commons is fascinating. When Churchill is at the dispatch boxes letting the coalition government have it, Hardy is magnificent. This series is highly recommended for anyone interested in British political history.
