Churchill’s Secret

Not even a stroke could stop the old warrior
Ben-Felsenburg-colour-176Perhaps it should come as no surprise that a hard-drinking, heavy-smoking gentleman of a certain age should fall ill in the way of ordinary mortals, but the heart attack Winston Churchill suffered in Washington in 1941 was known to only a very few for many years. Churchill’s Secret (Sunday, ITV, 8pm) takes us forward to 1953 – the great man is in the final chapter of his political career, prime minister of a Britain jostling for position in the Cold War era in the twilight of empire. Imbued by Michael Gambon with grizzled defiance, his powers are waning but still the old warrior is determined to strive for peace in the shadow of the bomb.

Then calamity: an evening entertaining the Italian minister at No 10 is cut short as Churchill is taken ill. His doctor Lord Moran (Bill Paterson) diagnoses a stroke; after a second attack Churchill is half-paralysed and can hardly speak. Clementine Churchill (Lindsay Duncan) can at last contemplate the retirement for her husband that she has longed for – and that he has so long resisted – if he survives. But that’s to underestimate his unyielding bulldog will, with help from the unlikely quarter of Labour-voting Nurse Appleyard (Romola Garai). With the crisis hidden from the public and Churchill striving to recover in time for the Tory conference, scriptwriter Stewart Harcourt gives us what is, eventually, politics’ own version of The King’s Speech – but with a towering performance from Gambon, who’s complaining?

NOT TO BE MISSED

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Grantchester, Wed, ITV, 9pm
We just can’t get enough of James Norton, and here he is back as 1950s detective-ina- dog-collar Sidney Chambers, now forced to clear his name after he’s falsely accused.

The Cruise, Thurs, ITV, 8.30pm
Be a sofa stowaway and join the crew of luxury ship the Regal Princess in a new series narrated by Hugh Bonneville.

Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed With Mary Beard, Thurs, BBC1, 9pm
Peeling back the layers of the Roman world using the latest technology, the historian is our guide for an eye-opening tour of the lost city.