100 YEARS OLD AND STILL WELL AHEAD OF HIS TIME...

AND NOW, a newsflash from 1945: The Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, has apologised to the nation for his gaffe, in a BBC radio interview, in which he accidentally leaked the name of the winner of the Second World War before the German surrender had been broadcast.

“What with German time, Greenwich Mean Time, British Summer Time and Double Summer Time, it’s all so confusing,” said Mr Churchill, 70.

“No-one told me running a war would be so emotional. I thought the British people would already have heard the result. I’m mortified to have let the result slip before I should have. I really ****** up.”

Fans of the contest between the Allies and the so-called Axis powers were left furious by Mr Churchill’s ill-timed announcement. “I have been following every battle in this war since it began six years ago and this has spoiled everything,” said Mr Greville Pathway, a conscientious objector from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, “but this has spoiled everything. It had built up to a magnificent climax and I was really looking forward to seeing who had won, but Mr Churchill has spoilt it for everyone. Neville Chamberlain would never have done anything like this.”

Mr Chamberlain had been the frontman for the Second World War series when it began with the German invasion of Poland in 1939 but internal disputes with the production team led to his resigning early on in the series and being replaced by Mr Churchill who had generally been praised for his conduct of the series until the latest gaffe. Some however have always held the view that the First World War series, which ran from 1914 to 1918, and also resulted in victory for Britain, had been generally superior.

This was transmitted only on radio, of course, but the move to television was always controversial, particularly after the Americans joined in. “I must say I’m not totally surprised at Mr Churchill’s mistake,” said Second World War supremo Bernard Montgomery.

“We had to agree schedules with them, which introduced another potentially confusing factor into the equation. We had to get the Germans to sign the surrender after midnight just so that the Americans could broadcast it at peak viewing time. The Russians were furious, I can tell you. It was the middle of the night for them. I don’t think we can blame Mr Churchill for accidentally leaking the news.”

Sources at the BBC say it is too early to say whether a Third World War series will be made, or when it is likely to be screened. We understand that discussions are currently going on concerning the idea of refining the production process with some smaller War series, possibly held in faraway places such as the Middle East or the Falklands, before launching a Third World War with stricter control over interviews or tweets by the presenters.

Mr Churchill’s role in a new series is also likely to be reviewed.

Any suggestion that Mr Chamberlain will be brought back as presenter is considered extremely unlikely as he died in 1940.