Darkest Hour: Queries and Comments with “Total Film” Magazine

6 January 2018 Comments 0 Comments

Jane Crowther, editor-in-chief of Britain’s Total Film magazine, had pertinent questions about the new film Darkest Hour. They were forwarded by Lady Gilbert from the website of official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert. Alas he is gone, but Sir Martin’s inspiration continues to guide everyone, as he said, “who labours in the Churchill vineyard.”

Q: Did Winston Churchill ever use public transport while PM, particularly the tube?

Not to my knowledge. His daughter Lady Soames told me he only used the Underground once, and became so lost that he had to be rescued. (He was not unfamiliar with other public facilities. Near a call box in the House of Commons, David Lloyd George once hailed him: “Winston, lend me sixpence so I can ring a friend.” Making a show of digging in his pockets, Churchill produced a coin: “Here, David, is a shilling. Now you can ring all your friends.”)

Darkest scenarios

Q: Did Churchill ever solicit opinions from the general public about government policies?

Did he ask the public what to do, as he does in Darkest Hour? Not in that way. But the film tries to convey that he took his cue from them—particularly when touring Blitz damage. Typical is this note in Churchill’s war memoir, Their Finest Hour (Cassell, 1949, 307-08), on a visit to South London:

When my car was recognised the people came running from all quarters, and a crowd of more than a thousand was soon gathered….They crowded round us, cheering and manifesting every sign of lively affection, wanting to touch and stroke my clothes. One would have thought I had brought them some fine substantial benefit which would improve their lot in life. I was completely undermined, and wept. Ismay, who was with me, records that he heard an old woman say: “You see, he really cares. He’s crying.” They were tears not of sorrow but of wonder and admiration.

“But see, look here,” they said, and drew me to the centre of the ruins. There was an enormous crater, perhaps forty yards across and twenty feet deep. Cocked up at an angle on the very edge was an Anderson shelter, and we were greeted at its twisted doorway by a youngish man, his wife, and three children, quite unharmed but obviously shell-jarred. They had been there at the moment of the explosion. They could give no account of their experiences. But there they were, and proud of it. Their neighbours regarded them as enviable curiosities. When we got back into the car a harsher mood swept over this haggard crowd. “Give it ’em back”, they cried, and “Let them have it too.” I undertook forthwith to see that their wishes were carried out….

On Courage

Q: We accept that the screenplay is a dramatisation of events. But is it likely that Churchill would have left a government car for a no-security ride on the tube? Would he stop to talk to the people before such an important speech? If not, why not?

He was totally fearless, and left his car often throughout the Blitz to walk about in scenes like the above. Likewise, he constantly tried to get near the fighting on visit to the various fronts. He was happiest when allowed to “pop off” at the enemy personally, or watch a ship’s gun do it. During the Blitz, his favorite roost was the roof of the Air Ministry. There he stared at incoming bombers through binoculars. (One night he was asked to move. He was sitting on a chimney, and blow-back from coal fires was doing more damage below than the Luftwaffe.)

The problem with Darkest Hour‘s Underground scene (and the scene where the King tells Churchill to ask the people if he should fight on) is not dramatic license—which as you say one expects. The problem is that it misrepresents Churchill’s character and resolution. Of course he had doubts about the outcome—who would not?

But Churchill never doubted the right course for Britain. Later he said, “it was the nation and race dwelling round the globe that had the lion heart.” Lady Diana Cooper, a dear friend, once told him that his greatest achievement was giving people courage. “I never gave them courage,” he replied. “I was able to focus theirs.”

See also an interview with The Australian.