At this rate, even I could play Churchill if I had to
Gary Oldman is hotly tipped to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards in March for his rousing portrayal of Winston Churchill in the film, Darkest Hour.
There’s no doubt Oldman does a terrific job, harrumphing his way through the cabinet war rooms and delivering barnstorming speeches in the House of Commons. And yet, watching it, I couldn’t help but feel almost anyone could play Churchill nowadays. In fact, almost anyone does.
In the last few years alone, our wartime prime minister has been portrayed by John Lithgow in The Crown, Michael Gambon in Churchill’s Secret, Timothy Spall in The King’s Speech, Brendan Gleeson in Into the Storm and even Christian Slater in the improbably named Churchill: The Hollywood Years.
Churchill now occupies such an indelible space in our national psyche that his characteristics and eccentricities have become enshrined in our collective consciousness.
If you slapped enough prosthetics on my face, gave me a cigar and a Homburg, I’m pretty sure that even I could play a pretty convincing
Churchill. All it would take is some naked dictation in the bath, a few victory signs flashed here and there and an electrifying promise to fight on the beaches.
The best lines in Darkest
Hour are all taken from Churchill’s very own speeches in any case, most of which we know by heart.
For my money, the real talent in Darkest Hour is Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays the much-overlooked Clementine Churchill with wit, charisma and verve.
That was the harder part – and she did it without a single prop or prosthetic.