01x01 - The Gathering Storm

[bunniefuu]

[somber, stately music plays]

[bell tolling]

[intriguing music playing]

[Churchill] I shall attempt to recount
the story of the coming upon mankind

of the worst tragedy
in its tumultuous history.

[spotlight switch echoes]

[field drum plays, music intensifies]

[airplanes approach]

[machine g*n firing]

[explosions echoing]

[explosions and g*nf*re continue]

[suspenseful music builds]

[man] Prime Minister!

Sir, what are you doing?

- [explosions continue]
- [air raid sirens wailing]

[airplanes buzzing]

[electricity crackling]

[Jon Meacham] When the shadows lengthened,

when darkness seemed to be falling,

it was Churchill who said no.

Evil would not prevail.

[Dan Snow] Churchill's one of
the dominant figures of the 20th century.

He's a central part in the biggest,
bloodiest w*r in human history.

[plane engines roaring]

When big countries think they can invade
and take over smaller countries...

Superpowers with different visions
of how they should operate in the world...

[Boris Johnson]
Churchill believed in freedom,

free speech, democracy.

Those ideals are not uncontested today,
far from it.

[Churchill]
We are guardians of our country

in an age when her life is at stake.

[Doug Douds] He is a warrior first,

but then he's also this poet.

[Johnson] Hitler made you feel
that he could do anything.

Churchill made you feel
that you were capable of doing anything.

[Churchill] We shall never cease
to persevere against them

until they have been taught a lesson

which they and the world
will never forget.

Churchill said this is a threat unlike any
we've faced in the last thousand years...

[Hitler] Sieg heil!

[all cheering]

[Snow]...and Britain had to do
everything it could to destroy it.

[David H. Petraeus] All of our democracy
was just hanging by a thread.

He comes to seem as sort of an oracle.

I am here today
because he stood up against fascism.

[Johnson] The establishment
thought he was a warmonger

and that he gloried in slaughter.

[Churchill] We know it will be hard.
We expect it will be long.

We shall strive to resist him.

[Sonia Purnell]
There was blood on his hands.

[Johnson] He was dangerous,
egotistical, opportunist, brilliant.

[Meacham] Churchill got a lot wrong.

But if you're gonna get one thing right,

the Second World w*r
is pretty high up there.

The world at times is starved
for strong leaders.

Churchill was a strong leader.

If Churchill was still around,

he would be like
an alarm clock going off again,

saying "Democracy has to be protected."

"Wake up."

[Douds] Every nation expects its leader

should be like Winston Churchill
in time of crisis.

And arguably every leader since
has fallen slightly short.

[distant explosions]

[Churchill]
In the high position I shall occupy,

it will fall to me
to save the Capital and save the Empire.

- [music peaks and fades]
- [distant air raid sirens wail]

[man on radio] A state of w*r once more
exists between Great Britain and Germany.

[Hitler giving speech in German]

[Hitler] Sieg heil!

[n*zi crowd] Sieg heil!

[Churchill] I was deeply anxious

about the life of the people of London,

the greater part of whom stayed, slept,

and took a chance where they were.

How long would it go on?

How much more would they have to bear?

[tense music playing]

[Andrew Roberts]
During the worst part of the Blitz,

there was 57 days
of consecutive bombing every night.

- [rubble clattering]
- [man shouting]

Civilian populations
were under attack in London.

Hitler wanted the British people
to be bombed into submission.

[indistinct crowd chatter]

They're just savage raids
designed to reduce British morale.

It was exhausting for people.

They were unable to sleep
through the night.

[sirens wailing]

There was a serious danger
that there would be demoralization.

[solemn music playing]

[Peri] The British people,
they are worried.

They are afraid.

They are in pretty dire straits.

[Roberts] I don't think it's appreciated
how close we could have come

to the catastrophe
of a n*zi-dominated Europe.

[airplanes passing]

[Purnell] And somehow, Winston had to
keep a nation going through all of this,

to give a nation belief that victory
could be possible, survival even,

because you looked out the window
and you couldn't imagine it could be.

[siren wails in distance]

Churchill helped will a people
through a terrible period of time.

[Snow] He wanted to see the people
of London. He wanted them to see him.

He knew that this was a battle for hearts
and minds, and he had a role to play.

[poignant music playing]

[footsteps clattering in debris]

[somber music swells]

[bricks clattering]

There wasn't any anti-aircraft last night.
Why aren't we firing back?

We can't sh**t at a target
in the dark, sir.

It's a waste of ammunition.

I don't care.

I want us to fire back every night,
no matter what.

[dramatic music playing]

They have to know we're fighting back.

Throughout the Blitz, Churchill projected
the image of calm determination.

He wanted that spirit to define
the British w*r effort.

Drink a cup of tea, get on with it.

[woman grunts]

[woman exclaims]

[Roberts] The overwhelming response
of Londoners was to say,

"Give it back to them."

[woman grunts]

And that's what he promised he'd do.

[grunting]

[hopeful, determined music playing]

[inaudible dialogue]

[Petraeus] There was a desire to
be the center of attention, if you will,

to be the man in the arena,

which is in part why he was so effective.

[cheering and applause]

[Churchill]
During these last crowded days,

my pulse had not quickened at any moment.

I took it all as it came.

I felt as if I were walking with destiny,

and that all my past life
had been but a preparation

for this hour

and for this trial.

[Snow] He was destined for great things.
And he was taught that as a young man.

He was convinced from the day he was born
that he was put on Earth

as a divine instrument to save Britain,
to save the world.

[whimsical music playing]

[Packwood] As a child,
he was very conscious

that there are expectations upon him

because he was born into
the very top of British society.

[Roberts] His father, Randolph Churchill,
was an important Victorian politician.

And his mother, Jennie Jerome,
was born into a rich American family.

[Churchill] She shone for me
like the Evening Star.

I loved her dearly,

but at a distance.

His father never really thought
that he would amount to much,

and his mother
really took no notice of him at all.

She was pursuing affairs
with the Prince of Wales

and the Austrian Ambassador and so on.

[Bush] It had to be lonely.

I think if you have
a dysfunctional family,

uh, the pressures have got to be double.

[Churchill] It is said that famous men are
usually the product of unhappy childhood.

The twinges of adversity are needed
to evoke that ruthless fixity of purpose,

without which great actions
are seldom accomplished.

[Millard] Everybody believed Churchill's
father would be prime minister one day,

but he was extremely arrogant.

And when he submitted his first budget
and it was rejected,

and he wrote a letter
to the prime minister, resigning,

thinking it would never be accepted,

but it was.

[Packwood] He'd thrown it all away,

effectively ending his career.

Here is someone
that Churchill had idolized.

And he now watches him deteriorate.

His father's death,
when Churchill is just 20 years old,

that has a huge impact on Winston.

[Churchill] All my dreams
of comradeship with him,

of entering Parliament at his side
and in his support, were ended.

The death is at one moment
this great personal tragedy,

but also a moment of liberation.

[Roberts] His father's death

allowed him to have the space
to be a great man himself.

[Churchill] There remained for me

only to pursue his aims

and vindicate his memory.

[Hirsch] He wanted to seek approval.
He wanted to be loved and admired.

I think that's a powerful
psychological driver of behavior.

[Snow] He wants to make his name.
He wants to win acclaim.

He wants to do that
the way aristocrats always have,

and that's on the b*ttlefield.

- [g*ns firing]
- [soldiers clamoring]

[horse neighing]

[distant expl*si*n]

[Packwood] So Churchill manages to get
himself assigned to a cavalry regiment.

[distant expl*si*n]

Good God, Winston,
you're riding that gray into battle?

[explosions continue]

As you see.

You might as well
paint a target on your chest.

They'll spot you a mile away.

I play for high stakes.

[Roberts] Winston Churchill rode a gray,
a white horse,

which was essentially
to draw attention to himself.

His fellow soldiers thought
it was an insane risk to take.

[horse neighing]

[g*nsh*t]

[Churchill]
Nothing in life is so exhilarating...

[g*nsh*t]

...as to be shot at without result.

[g*n fires]

[Warren Dockter]
Churchill k*lled a number of men.

You can tell that he's exhilarated by it.

But he also has
a tremendous respect for it.

[horse whinnies, knickers]

[flies buzzing]

[Churchill] It is all chance or destiny.

And our wayward footsteps are best planted
without too much calculation.

[Millard] Churchill was
a journalist while he was a soldier

because he's an extraordinary writer,

and he saw it
as his glittering gateway to distinction.

[Petraeus] The idea of having someone

who is in uniform
and a journalist simultaneously

just doesn't compute
in today's day and age.

He is a warrior first,
so he understands w*r.

But then he's also this poet

who is able to translate that
to the public.

But as a military officer,
he would've been incredibly unlikable.

He's going to go to the combat zone

so that he can write about it,
make all kinds of money personally,

and become a name in the process.

I think, as a fellow peer,
you would hate Winston Churchill.

[Snow] Churchill would have been
very comfortable in this world

of mass media, of selling yourself,

of spinning a great yarn,

trying to get likes and subscribers
on social media platforms.

[Petraeus] Churchill seemed
to have this unique capacity

to go to the right location
at the pivotal moment.

[Churchill] I was eager for trouble.

There was not an instant to lose.

[g*nf*re echoing]

[Packwood] The Boer w*r is a fight
between the British Empire

and the Dutch Boer republics,
which are seeking independence.

[horse whinnies]

Churchill goes looking for a way
of further raising his profile,

so he takes an expedition towards
the front line in an armored train.

- [train whistle blows]
- [train chugging]

And they're ambushed by the Boers.

[dramatic music plays]

The train is derailed.

- [g*nf*re]
- [horses whinnying]

They're coming under heavy fire.

[men shouting]

[Millard] Churchill's 24 years old,
and he immediately takes over.

You see that Churchillian will

and that desire to be at the center
of things, come to the front.

And the people who survived it credited
Churchill with saving their lives.

But Churchill wasn't so lucky.

[Roberts] Churchill was captured and sent
to a prisoner-of-w*r camp in Pretoria.

His whole nature revolted against the idea
that somebody as vigorous as him

could be wasting vital weeks and months
and possibly years in prison.

And he immediately
set about trying to escape.

[intriguing music playing]

[Millard] One night, he realizes
that the guards are preoccupied.

And he can quickly scale the fence
and get out.

The Boers, they started
searching everywhere for him.

And if they found him,
they very likely would have k*lled him.

So he decides to jump on a train,

hoping that it's going
in the right direction.

[Packwood] And despite not being able
to speak a word of Dutch,

he manages to make his way to safety
in what is now Mozambique,

which then allows him
to write up his adventures.

- [whip cracks]
- [horse neighs, gallops]

And that really goes stratospheric.

[crowd cheering]

[Roberts] He was a hero.

When his boat came in,
there were crowds all cheering him.

[triumphant music playing]

He no longer had to worry
about making his name.

It had been made.

[Hirsch] The fantastical nature of what
he actually accomplished in escaping

really helped solidify him
as a brand in Britain.

[Millard] His resourcefulness,
his complete confidence,

his courage, his determination,

all those things helped him survive
his escape from the Boers

and helped him be the person
we needed him to be during World w*r II.

[Churchill] Sometimes what looks
like bad luck

may turn out to be good luck,
and vice versa.

[city street sounds]

[Packwood] Churchill becomes a member of
Parliament within the Conservative Party

at the age of 25.

That is far from usual for the time.

[crowd clamoring]

[Meacham] The young Churchill
was a brilliant, comet-like force.

He inspired immense loyalty,

but he also inspired a lot of eye-rolling.

Which is what brilliant young men do.

[Churchill] We are all worms,

but I do believe that I am glowworm.

[Packwood] And, of course, that puts him
at tension right from the beginning,

with certain elements
within the Conservative Party.

By 1904, he's prepared to dramatically
cross the floor at the House of Commons

and become a member
of the Liberal opposition party.

[men jeering]

The Liberal Party aren't yet sure
whether they like him.

Many in the Conservative Party
regard him as a traitor.

[Andrews] Churchill was
a pragmatist as a politician.

He was not afraid to switch parties.

"Where is the wind going to take me
so that I can be in power?"

- [crowd clamoring]
- [car motor running]

[Packwood] Churchill's
just becoming a Liberal minister

when he meets with Clementine Hozier.

[Purnell] Clementine was
a very striking young woman,

huge blue eyes.

They ended up sitting next to each other
at a dinner party.

They went straight into a conversation

about everything that was happening
in the House of Commons.

And Churchill couldn't believe
he'd finally found

a woman that shared
the same interests as he did.

And they got married a few months later.

[romantic music playing]

[Churchill] What a comfort
and pleasure it was

to meet a girl
with so much intellectual quality

and such strong reserves
of noble sentiment.

[Purnell] Clementine couldn't have
a career herself in politics.

She was a woman, that wasn't allowed.

But this was a way that she could have
a real fulfilling and exciting life.

[Churchill] We do not live
in a world of small intrigues,

but of serious and important affairs.

[Roberts] Clementine was
interested in politics

and was very good at giving advice.

He didn't always take it,
but she always gave it.

[birds chirping]

[Churchill] One of the secrets
of a happy marriage...

[g*n fires]

...is to never speak to...

[chuckles]...or see
the loved one before noon.

[Packwood] In some ways, Winston
and Clementine do differ politically.

He's someone who is brought up
in that very male-dominated world,

and someone who, I think,
is loath to see that world disappear.

[Purnell] Clementine, who's a suffragist,

and Winston was
quite an old-fashioned man.

His original views were,

"We don't want women voting,
thank you very much."

"We've got enough troubles
of our own already."

[Roberts] At that time,
he was also Home Secretary.

- [women screaming]
- [horse whinnies]

[men shouting]

[Roberts] He had lots and lots of
suffragettes arrested and put in prison.

[dramatic music playing]

[Purnell] Clementine was
completely loyal to him in public,

but behind closed doors,
she would take him on.

She was a sparring partner.

Once he found out they'd vote for him,

he lowered his resistance to the idea,

which is a very fine example
of realpolitik.

[Churchill] If we look back
on our past life,

we shall see
that one of its most usual experiences

is that we have been helped
by our mistakes

and injured
by our most sagacious decisions.

- [expl*si*n booms]
- [soldiers shouting]

[Packwood] In 1914,
the beginning of the First World w*r,

Europe is dragged into conflict.

[g*nsh*t]

- [explosions]
- [clamoring]

[Anthony Tucker-Jones] Both sides dug in.
It turned into a stalemate very quickly,

capturing, you know,
meters of ground, not miles.

[Snow] Millions of men
living in muddy trenches.

Churchill famously said,
"There must be something else we can do

rather than send our young men
to chew barbed wire on the Western Front."

[Tucker-Jones] Churchill was
the First Lord of the Admiralty,

and he, amongst others,

started to look around
for a way of breaking that deadlock.

And one of his ideas was
an amphibious operation,

in an effort
to knock the Turks out of the w*r.

In previous wars, the Royal Navy
had just sailed up the narrows,

the Dardanelles,

that very thin stretch of water

between Europe
and what we call the Middle East today,

and the Turks have to do
what you want them to do.

[Tucker-Jones]
On paper, it was an ideal operation.

But because the Dardanelles campaign
was run by a committee,

it didn't happen very quickly.

[expl*si*n booms]

So they lost all element of surprise.

[cannons firing]

[suspenseful music swells]

The Royal Navy had lost lots of ships.
The whole thing was a fiasco.

[Snow] Churchill responds by thinking,

"What we need to do is
land a force on the Gallipoli peninsula

that will occupy that peninsula."

"Then the Royal Navy can sail up
and capture Istanbul."

[Douds] With poor intelligence,
some uninspired leadership,

and poor communication, the whole thing
ends up being a dramatic failure.

[somber music plays]

[Roberts] The Allies had lost


[distant explosions]

[Snow] Churchill very much
was the scapegoat.

The Press castigated him.

[people yelling]

[Purnell] People yelled at him
in the streets

that there was blood on his hands,

the loss of all those lives.

[Johnson] It's clear how much
he loathes the loss of life

and the suffering
of ordinary people in w*r.

[Churchill] I feel like a wounded man.

I know I am hurt,

but as yet I cannot tell how badly.

[birds calling and chirping]

[tuts]

[sighs]

They're going to evacuate.

Pull out of the Dardanelles...

tail between their legs.

What will you do?

Well, I refuse to waste away in obscurity,

while my name and reputation are ruined.

[exhales]

[sniffs]

Winston, what is going on?

If I can't serve my country in politics,

then I shall serve her on the b*ttlefield.

Tomorrow I'm resigning...

and rejoining my regiment.

[emotional music playing]

It's what you must do.

But you mustn't get k*lled,
or they'll think you died on purpose.

That's not why I'm going.

But if I do die...

and if there's anywhere else after...

[takes deep breath]

...I shall be on the lookout for you.

[tuts]

[Churchill] I was ruined
for the time being in 1915,

and a supreme enterprise was cast away,

through my trying to carry out
a major and cardinal operation of w*r

from a subordinate position.

[somber music playing]

Men are ill-advised to try such ventures.

[man] The First Lord of the Admiralty
resigned to become a major in the field,

Major Winston Churchill.

[Snow] Imagine a member
of the cabinet leaving their role

and going and fighting on the front line.

That's what Churchill does.
He puts his money where his mouth is.

- [soldiers clamoring]
- [distant explosions]

[Man] Fire!

[intriguing music playing]

[Tucker-Jones] He famously turned up
with a tin bath and his easels

and all the accoutrements
that a general needs to go to w*r,

champagne, whiskey,

you know, as if he actually
wasn't going to do anything.

[Roberts] He hadn't been
a soldier for some time.

They didn't like the idea
of a celebrity, uh, officer.

There was some hostility in his regiment
right at the beginning.

But then he took part in
some 30 expeditions into no man's land.

[g*nf*re, shouting]

[Tucker-Jones] Churchill, famously,
whenever he came under fire,

would never take cover.

[shouting and g*nf*re continue]

And one day one of his men said,
"Why do you do that?" He said,

'The point is, by the time you hear
the crack of the round whiz by you..."

- [g*n fires]
- "...it's gone.

So there's no point
in throwing yourself on the earth."

[Douds] So soon, they see
that his words and his deeds match up,

and that he can be trusted,
and he's a legitimately good leader.

He wins them over.

[horse hooves clacking]

[Churchill] My darling Clemmy...

[sentimental music playing]

...hold your head very high.

Above all, do not worry about me.

If my destiny has not
already been accomplished,

I shall be guarded surely.

[Douds] This whole idea of fate,

that every little bit, including the parts
that go wrong in his life,

will prepare him to do
the job of Prime Minister.

[all cheering]

- [car horns honking]
- [cheers and applause]

[Roberts] After the First World w*r ended,
he had an extremely active decade.

[Packwood] He becomes
the Secretary of State for the Colonies,

and then Chancellor of the Exchequer.

So he becomes
one of the political big beasts.

In 1924, Churchill crosses
the floor of the House of Commons,

moving back from the Liberals
to the Conservatives.

[Peri] In the context
of American politics,

it's a little bit like
somebody who's a Democrat

one day raising their hand and saying,

"I'm gonna run as a Republican
for the next election in order to win."

And doing that two times.

[whimsical music playing]

He was difficult to deal with,
as I understand.

He kind of irritated a lot of people.

He was quite confident of his capacities
and didn't mind telling people that.

[Churchill] Anyone can rat,

but it takes a certain amount
of ingenuity to re-rat.

Churchill was someone

who was willing to break with
the status quo of his own party,

over things that were
incredibly important to him.

[horse hooves clacking]

[crowd clamoring]

[Tucker-Jones] In the 1930s,
India had wanted independence.

They were tired of British rule.

And Churchill never supported it.

[Churchill] I was a child
of the Victorian era,

when the realization
of the greatness of our empire

and of our duty to preserve it
was ever growing stronger.

[Hirsch] Like many children
in the aristocracy,

Churchill was sent to boarding school,

in an institution
which was specifically designed

to build young men of the upper classes
into imperial officers and leaders,

to give them a sense
of their role as civilizing forces,

destined for racial and moral superiority.

[Tucker-Jones] He'd been raised to serve
the British Empire, to keep it together.

So he was a great believer
in the civilizing influence, if you like,

you know, rightly or wrongly,
of Britain and its colonial possessions.

[Churchill] For I feel
that the Indian danger

will raise a crisis equal in importance

to the greatest events
in the history of Great Britain.

[Peri] He defies his own government.

He does not want to let
any part of the empire,

especially the jewel of the crown,
India, go.

[Snow] Churchill throughout his career
fought to maintain that view of the world,

as it existed when he was a young man.

A world in which Britain was dominant,

in which the Union Flag fluttered
over territories all over the world.

Churchill hung on to imperialism
as a way to keep England great,

but the world was moving away from that.

[Catherine Grace Katz] I think
for some it's difficult to reconcile

Churchill as an advocate
for democracy and self-determination

because he believed in the British Empire.

That adds, I think,
to the problematic nature of his legacy

that we're all sort of contending with.

[dramatic music plays]

[Tucker-Jones] Because Churchill
was at loggerheads with his own party

over the future of India,

he did not have a government post.

He had no sway.

[Packwood] These are what famously
become known as his "wilderness years."

[Dockter] He's still in Parliament,
but he's on the back bench.

[Douds] Nobody really wants to touch him.
He's a bit of a poisonous stone.

He's on the outs.

[Johnson] So it's 1932,
Churchill's out of office,

he's looking for a cause,

and he's interested in
what's happening in Germany,

and he's actually in Munich.

[train passing]

[car horn honking]

So you see, Herr Hanfstaengl,

the French try to form their troops
into squares, but...

[exhales]

...they are devastated
by the a*tillery of the Duke.

Marlborough orders the attack,

and the French center... collapses.

A great victory for the Grand Alliance.

All because John Churchill,
the 1st duke of Marlborough,

was not afraid to fight.

Amazing. It must be gratifying to have
such blood running through your veins.

Perhaps I have some of those qualities
also, eh, Clemmy?

Oh, you've been touched
by many qualities, Winston.

[all laughing]

[Packwood] Churchill goes out to Germany,

and that allows him to see at firsthand

the dramatic changes which are taking
place in German society at that time.

I've been regaling you
with tales of my great hero.

What about yours?

Tell me, Herr Hanfstaengl,

why is your chief, Hitler,
so violent about the Jews?

Where's the sense in being against a man
simply because of his birth?

- [ominous music plays]
- How can any man help how he was born?

- If Herr Hitler was here, he'd tell you...
- Yes, where is he?

Randolph said that you would arrange
for him to come to dinner this evening.

Oh yes.

He was meant to come tonight,
but he's very busy with the election.

Such a pity.

[smacks lips]

It seems Mr. Hitler has missed
his chance to meet Winston Churchill.

[distant clamoring and shouting]

[Packwood] In Munich, Churchill was
supposed to have a meeting with Hitler.

And it's interesting to speculate
what would have happened

if the two of them had been able to meet

and discuss international affairs
at that point.

And in the end, Hitler stands Churchill up

because in the 1930s,
Churchill is out of office.

Hitler told Hanfstaengl there was no point
in him meeting Winston Churchill

because Churchill was a has-been
and nobody would ever hear of him again.

- [Hitler] Sieg heil!
- [crowd] Sieg heil!

[Meacham] What Churchill saw
so clearly and so brilliantly

was that the Third Reich
was an existential threat

to human liberty and decency.

- [ominous music swells]
- [cigar ember sizzles]

[Churchill] After the end
of the World w*r of 1914...

[sinister music plays]

...emperors having been driven out...

[crowd roars]

...nonentities were elected.

Beneath this flimsy fabric

raged the passions
of the defeated German nation.

A gaping void was opened
in the national life of the German people.

And into that void
there strode a maniac of ferocious genius,

[Hitler] Sieg heil!

[Churchill]...the repository and expression
of the most virulent hatreds

that have ever corroded the human breast...

[sinister music swells]

Corporal Hitler.

[crowd] Sieg heil!

[Snow] Adolf Hitler comes to power
by promising the German people

that Germany will be great again.

It'll be rich, it'll be powerful.
It'll be feared again as it once was.

- [Hitler] Sieg heil!
- [crowd] Sieg heil!

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

[bell tolling]

[people murmuring]

The great dominant fact is that
Germany has already begun to rearm.

We see that the philosophy of bloodlust

is being inculcated into their youth

in a manner unparalleled
since the days of barbarism.

[all] Heil!

- [In German] You are flesh of our flesh...
- [crowd cheers]

- ...and blood of our blood...
- [applause]

...and in your youthful brain burns
the same spirit that commands us all.

[disturbing music plays]

[cheering continues]

[Tucker-Jones in English] Churchill views
Hitler as an incredibly disruptive force

that is going to bring conflict
back to Europe.

Which he sees as a direct challenge
to all of the values for which he stands.

[bell tolls]

I do not believe that w*r is imminent
or that w*r is inevitable.

But if we do not begin forthwith

to put ourselves
in a position of security...

[uneasy murmuring]

...it will soon be
beyond our power to do so.

There is not an hour to lose.

- [jeering protests]
- [man] Sit down.

[Snow] The lessons Churchill drew
from the First World w*r is that

power matters in the world.

And if you want to stop wars
in the future,

you've got to project power,
you've got to project deterrence.

[man] Warmonger.

[Roberts] People thought
he was a warmonger,

that he was only saying these things
in order to try to get back into office.

[Hirsch] Because he'd used
such excessively dramatic language

so unnecessarily about
independence movements in the Empire,

that when he had a legitimate concern
about the rise of Hitler, for example,

it was kind of a case
of the boy who cried wolf.

[uneasy music playing]

[crowd applauding and cheering]

[crowd cheering and shouting]

[fire roaring]

[children shouting happily]

[cheering intensifies]

[whistling]

[Douds] Adolf Hitler reoccupied
the Rhineland in 1936.

[Tucker-Jones] The Rhineland
had been a massive security buffer

- between France and Germany.
- [footsteps marching]

[man over PA in German] German troops
move back into their peacetime garrisons

in the unprotected zone.

[horses approaching]

[man] Heil Hitler!

[crowd] Heil Hitler!

[Tucker-Jones]
When Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland,

Churchill saw that,
and it set alarm bells ringing.

But Britain and France didn't do anything.

[ominous music playing]

No one wanted to be told in the 1930s
that another w*r was coming.

Remember how profound the pacifism,
the anti-w*r feeling, was at the time,

given the horrors of the First World w*r.

[Douds] For all the leaders,
they feel utterly responsible

to not let that happen again.

[Hirsch] Except Churchill,
to his credit, was one of the voices

who was really interrogating
that perspective and calling it wrong.

[people murmuring]

For five years,

I have talked to the House
on these matters.

Not with very great success.

I have watched this famous island

descending incontinently, fecklessly,

the stairway which leads to a dark gulf.

[crowd cheering]

FREEDOM - PEACE

[stressful music playing]

[crowd chants in unison]

[man in German] Adolf Hitler,
as Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor.

The guardian of the crown of the realm.

Sieg heil!

[crowd] Sieg heil!

[Douds in English] In 1938,
Adolf Hitler will annex Austria.

Hitler kept getting his way.
The Brits and French kept backing down.

He thought they'd keep backing down.

[Katz] Many of
the British politicians thought

that by holding off,
they were preserving peace.

[Tucker Jones] Instead, Britain's policy
of appeasement signaled to Hitler

that the international community
would not oppose his expansionism.

[stressful music swells]

[man] Sieg heil!

[crowd] Sieg heil!

[Packwood] In Britain during that time,
you have a nominally national government,

dominated by the Conservative Party,

and led by Neville Chamberlain
as Prime Minister.

[people shouting]

[Roberts] Neville Chamberlain
had known Churchill,

you know, all their political lives,

but when Churchill
was warning about Hitler,

Chamberlain didn't listen to him.

The more you are prepared,

and the better
you are known to be prepared,

the greater is the chance
of staving off w*r

and saving Europe
from the catastrophe which menaces it.

How much longer
must the obvious remedies be denied?

[boos, jeering]

[Churchill] I felt a sensation of despair.

[dispirited music playing]

To be so entirely convinced in a matter
of life and death to one's country,

and not to be able to make Parliament
and the nation heed the warning,

or bow to the proof by taking action,

was an experience most painful.

[Tucker-Jones] After Britain and France
failed to stand up to Hitler,

he just kept going.

And he turned to Czechoslovakia.

[resolute music playing]

[Douds] Czechoslovakia is
an ally of England and France.

So the rest of Europe says,
"How do we appease this upstart?"

[in German] One people. One realm.

Germany, sieg heil!

[all cheering]

[Tucker-Jones in English] The British
prime minister, Neville Chamberlain,

made the decision
to negotiate with Hitler,

who promised that the Germans

would be satisfied
with Czechoslovakia's western borderlands.

[Roberts] When Neville Chamberlain
came back from Munich,

he thought he had made a great deal.

We regard the agreement signed last night

as symbolic of the desire
of our two peoples

never to go to w*r with one another again.

[people cheering]

[Douds] So they go ahead
and give him western Czechoslovakia

with the Munich Pact.

[angry shouting]

And with that, they throw
Czechoslovakia under the bus.

They give away land
that's not even theirs.

[Peri] Churchill gives a speech
about this tragedy.

It is 30 minutes of him just eviscerating

the Chamberlain government
for allowing this to happen.

[people murmuring]

This is only
the beginning of the reckoning.

This is only the first sip,

- the first foretaste of a bitter cup...
- [man clears throat]

...which will be proffered to us
year by year

unless... by a supreme recovery
of martial vigor,

we arise again
and take our stand for freedom

as in the olden time.

[clamoring, jeering, protests]

[Roberts] Hitler takes notice
of Churchill's speeches and responded.

[in German] The minute another man
rises to power in England,

someone like Mr. Churchill...

That minute we know it would be
the ambition of these men

to break loose yet another world w*r,

and do so immediately.

[crowd yells in protest]

[applause]

[in English] Churchill really
got under Hitler's skin.

He's helped by this great sense of humor.

n*zi Germany is so humane.

All they ask for is the right to live

and to be let alone
to conquer and k*ll the weak.

[Meacham] Hitler was
a feral kind of creature.

There was an intuition to him.

In Churchill, he sensed a figure
who would not roll over.

[Tucker-Jones] Churchill understood
there was a gathering storm,

but at some point
Britain would have to commit itself.

But Britain still
would not declare w*r on Germany.

[riveting music playing]

[Churchill] We seem to be very near
the bleak choice between w*r and shame.

My feeling is that we shall choose shame,

and then have w*r thrown in a little later

on even more adverse terms
than at present.

[marching footsteps]

[Roberts] In 1939,

Hitler broke the promises
he'd made at Munich

and marched
into the rest of Czechoslovakia.

[serious music playing]

[Tucker-Jones]
The Munich Agreement had been a lie.

And Chamberlain had been made a fool of
by acquiescing to Hitler.

[Roberts] This created a great groundswell
of support for Churchill.

He had been right all along.

[crowd greeting Churchill]

[Lammy] They come to see that those that
stood against Churchill were, in fact,

weak, lacked courage.

[Nazis chanting]

[Tucker-Jones] Churchill knew
that peace with Hitler was a lost cause

and w*r with n*zi Germany
was very real, very imminent.

[train whistle blowing]

[crowd cheering, whistling]

[tense music playing]

[Douds] 1939, Germany will make
a pact with the Soviet Union

for the division of Poland.

It's unimaginable today. It would be like
the US and Russia becoming allies

and really collaborating on dismembering
a country that sits between them.

- [music swells]
- [plan engine roars]

[people yelling and screaming]

[rapid g*nf*re]

- [expl*si*n]
- [crumbling]

[dramatic music plays]

[Churchill] Poland was attacked by Germany
at dawn on September 1st.

[Tucker-Jones] Poland became
the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Ruane] The storm clouds of w*r

which had been gathering
the previous two, three, four, five years,

1939 is kickoff for World w*r II.

[planes roar past]

[expl*si*n echoes]

[bell tolls]

[man] The fateful hour
of 11:00 has struck.

A state of w*r once more exists
between Great Britain and Germany.

[Peri] Hitler was clearly lying all along.

Churchill comes to seem
as sort of an oracle.

- [camera clicks]
- [people clamoring]

People were finally recognizing
that Churchill needed to be recalled.

[purposeful music playing]

[Churchill] The Prime Minister asked me
to visit him at Downing Street.

[Packwood] Chamberlain offers Churchill
the job of First Lord of the Admiralty,

which was the same office that he had
at the beginning of the First World w*r.

[Morse code beeping]

This allowed the signal
to be sent to the British fleet...

"Winston is back."

Churchill was thrilled by this.

At last he'd been proved right
about his warnings about Hitler,

and now he was in a position
to do something about it.

- [stern, stately music playing]
- [seagulls calling]

[Churchill] Each one hopes
that if he feeds the crocodile enough,

the crocodile will eat him last.

All of them hope that the storm will pass
before their time comes to be devoured.

But I fear...

I fear greatly, the storm will not pass.

It will rage and it will roar...

ever more loudly...

ever more widely.

[speaking in German]

[explosions]

[people shouting and crying]

[airplanes approaching]

[Roberts] German surprise attacks
against Denmark and Norway

caught the British off-guard.

[Tucker-Jones] There's a major naval w*r,

and Britain and France are
unceremoniously expelled from Norway.

[Tucker-Jones] At this point,
Neville Chamberlain's policy

of appeasement is seen
as a complete and utter disaster.

All political confidence
in the government's collapsed.

[background chatter]

[Roberts] The public in Britain
was angry with Chamberlain.

His closest allies
in the Cabinet recognized

that the time was up, and he had to go.

[somber music playing]

[Katz] Neville Chamberlain has to resign
and find the next Prime Minister.

[Tucker-Jones] The problem is, of course,

becoming Prime Minister at that point
is a poisoned chalice.

You know, who-who would want the job?

[car horns honking]

That narrows it down to a choice

between the Foreign Secretary,
Lord Halifax,

a dove who supports appeasement,

and Churchill, the hawk.

So it's whether you're going to have
someone within the Commons

still trying to find
a negotiated way out of this crisis,

or whether you're going to go with
someone who is going to fight.

[people chattering]

[Roberts] On the 9th of May, 1940,
four men met at Number 10.

The first was Neville Chamberlain,
the outgoing Prime Minister.

Then there was the Chief Whip,
David Margesson.

The next was Lord Halifax.

And finally, of course,
Winston Churchill himself.

There's been
an enormous amount of speculation

about exactly what was said
at that meeting.

[bell tolls]

[Churchill] I do not recall
the actual words used,

but this was the implication,

that the duty that would fall upon me

had, in fact, fallen upon me.

Churchill claimed
that after a long silence,

everybody agreed
that it had to be Churchill. Um...

What actually happened
was the same thing that had happened

all the way through Churchill's life.

He demanded the job.

And on the evening of the 10th of May,
Winston Churchill became Prime Minister.

[Snow] Winston Churchill,
the man who always believed,

even in his "wilderness years,"

that one day he would
become Prime Minister,

one day he would lead his country...

He's now been given that opportunity.

[dramatic music playing]

[Douds] The day Winston Churchill
becomes Prime Minister,

that's the day that
the Germans invade the Low Countries.

[a*tillery firing]

And to the rest of the world, it's scary.

- [plane droning]
- [shell exploding]

[Roberts] The German Blitzkrieg attack,

the "Sickle-Scythe Maneuver" it's called,

just utterly crushed the Allied forces.

[Katz] It's literally 125 years
since Britain has actually been threatened

by this prospect of invasion,

and that fact has become
impossible to deny.

[Tucker-Jones] The Nazis were coming.

The British public was quite terrified.

The British people need
a call to action to inspire people.

[Snow] Churchill is trying to convince
politicians and a big chunk of the public

to stay in this w*r against Hitler.

The fate of Winston Churchill,
the fate of Europe,

and possibly the fate of the free world,
hang in the balance in May 1940.

[dramatic music dies down]

I would say to the House,

as I've said to those
who've joined this government,

I have nothing to offer,

but blood,

toil,

tears,

and sweat.

We have before us
an ordeal of the most grievous kind.

We have before us many, many long months
of struggle and suffering.

[stirring music playing]

You asked, "What is our policy?"

I will say,

it is to wage w*r,

by sea,

land,

and air,

with all our might

and with all the strength
that God can give us.

To wage w*r against a monstrous tyranny

never surpassed in the dark and lamentable
catalog of human crime.

That is our policy.

You ask, "What is our aim?"

I can answer in one word.

Victory.

Victory at all costs.

Victory in spite of all terror.

Victory, however long and hard
the road may be.

For without victory,

there is no survival.

[stirring music swells]

[Churchill] All I hope...
is that it is not too late.

[stirring music fades]

I'm very much afraid it is.

[thunderous crash echoes]

[dramatic music plays]

[music fades out]