Friday Night Movie number 106 – ‘Churchill, The Gathering Storm’

 

This weeks Friday Night Movie is a 1974 dramatisation of a slice of British history in this case the political situation that existed in the run up to the Second World War.

‘The Gathering Storm’ stars Richard Burton as Winston Churchill, Virginia McKenna as his wife Clementine, Robert Hardy as Nazi foreign minister Von Ribbentrop and Patrick Stewart as Labour leader Clement Atlee. It is a tightly shot and dialogue heavy made for television movie from the BBC / NBC and shows both the political scene of the time, which was dominated by the desire to avoid another war with Germany and Churchill’s continual warnings about the threat posed to Britain by Nazism.

The movie really does highlight the frustrations that Winston Churchill must have felt when he warned about the problems that would occur because of the rise of Nazism and the bestial world that it could usher in. Those people who find themselves equally frustrated today when they have their warnings about the danger posed by Islam may well recognise parallels between the way the majority of the Establishment treated those who warned about Hitler back then and how those who warn about Islam are treated by today’s Establishment.

This is a gripping drama which showcases the talents of some of the most famous and most accomplished actors and actresses of their day and is well worth watching. On a technical note this copy of the movie appears to be an off air VHS recording and because of that vision quality is not as high as some other offerings that this blog has had in this strand.

I was delighted to discover that this movie was available and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.