Ralph Wigram Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill’s Christmas, 1882-1947: Halcyon and Sterner Days

24 December 2019 Comments 0 Comments

“Churchill’s Christmas” is excerpted from a two-part article for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the complete text with footnotes, please click here.

To Churchillian colleagues, and most of all those who have encouraged and supported our Churchill work at Hillsdale College so many years: thank-you for being our friends.

Washington, 24 December 1941

“Let the children have their night of fun and laughter… Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.…

Albert Finney in “The Gathering Storm”

2 March 2009 Comments 3 Comments

“The Gathering Storm,” a film for television produced by BBC Films and HBO Inc.. Starring Albert Finney as Winston Churchill and Vanessa Redgrave as Clementine. First aired April 2002, 90 minutes.

Churchill films seldom engender unanimity. But everyone who watched the preview, by kind invitation of the British Consul in Boston, had the same reaction. “The Gathering Storm” is really good. Even in a cynical and anti-hero age, filmmakers still can avoid reducing Churchill to a flawed burlesque or a godlike caricature. Except for huge gap in the story line, “The Gathering Storm” is outstanding.…