CHURCHILL

Brian Cox — no, the other one — takes on his greatest acting challenge to date: playing an adorable nodding dog who becomes PM.

GIVEN PORTRAYALS OF Churchill are way beyond dart-score figures, you’d think there was little left to say about Britain’s jowly leader. Well, think again. Set during the 48 hours leading up to D-day, Jonathan Teplitzky’s time-bomb drama bunkers down in Downing Street’s War Room where Churchill faced a battle on three fronts: the Nazi war machine, his own obdurate generals and an internal conflict with debilitating depression. With the mighty Brian Cox as its lead, this promises to recast a mythical figure in all-too human form.

“What we’ve uncovered flies in the face of public perception,” says Teplitzky. “Many people will be shocked to hear Churchill was in total opposition to D-day. He feared Operation Overlord would be another Gallipoli.”

Joined by a stellar ensemble including Miranda Richardson as Clemmie Churchill, James Purefoy as King George VI and Ella Purnell as Churchill’s secretary, Cox looks, sounds and waddles like the real thing.

“Churchill was an MP in my home town [Dundee], so this is a role of a lifetime,” he says. “He was an astonishingly complex character. He could be volatile, funny, a drunk, a rascal, often a big baby, but also a genius and a man of destiny.this isn’t about Churchill the icon — it’s about the man.” One thing’s for sure: you’ll never look at a five-pound note in quite the same way again...