The forgotten influence of Clementine Churchill
She was a devoted wife but, as a new film reveals, Mrs Churchill could have changed the course of history, too. Sonia Purnell reports
Winston Churchill is not just the most biographed figure of all time but now surely also one of the most popular characters in Hollywood. In less than 12 months, he has held sway over the blockbusting Netflix series, The Crown, and no fewer than three major movies. The latest film – Darkest Hour – opens in British cinemas on Friday, amid chatter of a possible nod in the forthcoming awards season.
Yet, for all the excitement about the former prime minister’s ability to intrigue and inspire more than 50 years after his death, it is the evolving portrayal of Clementine, his wife, that has truly captured the imagination. Kristin Scott-thomas plays the part in Darkest Hour and, just as Harriet Walter in The Crown, fought hard to beef up the part in recognition of her huge but little-understood role in Churchill’s, and the nation’s, life-story.
The extraordinary importance of this largely forgotten figure is finally beginning to shine. Clementine was not just a loving wife but an engaged partner in her husband’s political career and wartime leadership – indeed, he wrote in a note to her on their 40th wedding anniversary in 1948 that his life’s work, including winning the Second World War, would not have been possible without her. He recognised that his greatest achievements would have eluded him without his wife as his closest adviser and greatest influence. The Churchills – with their different political ideas and personal temperaments – were perhaps the ultimate coalition.
And yet, at first, neither production gave more than a passing nod to Clementine’s role. Indeed, it was for that reason that Scott-thomas turned down the part, however suited she was and however empathetic she felt towards such a formidable and complex character. Reading up on Clementine’s story, and coming to understand the extent to which her husband’s greatness was in large part down to her support and guidance, Scott-thomas was not prepared to play the mere cipher that was originally on offer.
When Joe Wright, the director, asked her why she had rejected the role, she made it clear that she felt that Clementine, as so often in the past, “should not just be at the table as the symbol of a woman in the home”. She urged Wright, who directed Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, to make the role “more proactive”. “Make her more reactive to what’s going on,” she said. “Give her more of a motor, and then I might want to do it.”
It is testimony to the respect commanded by the Oscar-nominated actress that Wright acted on her advice – and in so doing the film is both more authentic and revealing. As Gary Oldman’s Churchill struggles with becoming prime minister at a time of unimaginable national peril – as France was falling and invasion of Britain by Nazi Germany seemed to be imminent – we see his ever-stylish wife comforting, but also cajoling him. Just as we watch Churchill’s personal dilemmas, we see her soothing his fears and stiffening his resolve but also being firm when necessary. We are even allowed a glimpse of how important she was in crafting those legendary speeches.
As Scott-thomas herself has said in an interview with Vanity Fair, “it made the film interesting, to see these really personal and intimate moments”.
Yet even so, Clementine is shut out of scenes that are rightly hers. It is Winston’s secretary, Miss Layton (Lily James), who is shown encouraging him from the Strangers’ Gallery in the House of Commons.
In reality, that would never have happened. He was never that close to any one of his secretaries – whom he universally addressed just as “Miss” – and it would have been Clementine herself watching her husband in the House. She edited speeches, rehearsed them with him and it was her approval that Churchill sought afterwards, usually with: “Was that all right?”
Scott-thomas has admitted that even with the tweaks to the film, it remains “frustrating” that Clementine has not been given the same treatment as her husband. “When are they going to make a film about her?” she asks bluntly. “People are intrigued by her and want to know more about her. Hopefully somebody will have a good idea, and I hope they don’t mind casting me to play her.”
Scott-thomas certainly plays the part with élan. She researched the Churchills’ relationship in impressive detail – including the fact that they had ferocious rows. She also investigated what Clementine wore (including her turbans, chosen to denote solidarity with wartime female factory workers, who wore them for safety reasons) and how she did her hair. She captures the elegance, intelligence but also the volatility of her subject very well.
But if a film is made about Clementine, it seems as if Scott-thomas might face stiff competition from another actress. Harriet Walter also gives a compelling performance as Mrs Churchill – equally backed up by painstaking reading and an obvious feeling for her character. She too pressed the makers of The Crown to give Clementine at least some of her due. She realised that, in a different time, Winston’s wife – with all her political acumen and administrative talent – would have been wellequipped for a position of power in her own right. She was, however, held back by being born into the Victorian age – and could not even vote until in her thirties – and therefore channelled her formidable energies and talents through her husband.
“She was certainly up to it and she cared about a lot of things,” Walter says. “I think it would have been great for her to be born a little later, I think she was taken very seriously by colleagues in Parliament.”
Walter has spoken of the intense pressure that Clementine must have faced in guiding her husband – including her part in urging him to step down as prime minister after he had suffered a stroke – as portrayed in The Crown. Yet in neither production do we truly see how pivotal she was to Churchill’s politics. She certainly played a greater role than that of Eleanor Roosevelt, and arguably more than any premier’s spouse in history.
To the outside world, Churchill never showed doubt or weakness. Yet it is impossible to understand how he could stand alone against Hitler or rebound from so many blunders earlier in his career without knowing his wife. As Walter says, Clementine played far more of a part in our collective history than has, as yet, ever been presented on screen. But judging by new understanding of this formidable woman, encouraged by these admirable actresses, Clementine Churchill might one day be given the cinematic attention that she deserves.
Lily James on Darkest Hour: see Review