Churchill's Secret
Churchill's Secret is an Anglo-American drama television film first broadcast on ITV1 on 28 February 2016. The screenplay was written by Stewart Harcourt based on the book The Churchill Secret: KBO by Jonathan Smith. It stars Michael Gambon as Winston Churchill and Romola Garai as Millie Appleyard, his nurse.
Contents
Plot
In summer 1953, some eighteen months after Churchill has been elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a second time, he suffers a serious stroke. Though his illness is kept as secret as possible his political friends and foes begin to plot his successor when it is unclear whether he will recover or not. He is nursed back to health by Millie Appleyard.
Cast
- Winston Churchill - Michael Gambon
- Millie Appleyard - Romola Garai
- Clementine Churchill - Lindsay Duncan
- Mary Soames - Daisy Lewis
- Rosie Hopper - Matilda Sturridge
- Alcide De Gasperi - Peter Brown
- Jock Colville - Patrick Kennedy
- Christopher Soames - Christian McKay
- Rab Butler - Chris Larkin
- Charles Wilson, 1st Baron Moran - Bill Paterson
- Sgt Murray - Ian Mercer
- Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook - Matthew Marsh
- William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose - John Standing
- Brendan Bracken - James Wilby
- Diana Churchill - Tara Fitzgerald
- Sarah Churchill - Rachael Stirling
- Randolph Churchill - Matthew Macfadyen
- Anthony Eden - Alex Jennings
Production
Gambon's casting was announced in May 2015.[1] In June, it was announced that the actress Romola Garai had taken the role of Millie Appleyard.[2]
