SummaryIn 1953, Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Michael Gambon) had a stroke and his condition was hidden from everyone while he recovered in this TV-movie that appears as a part of PBS' Masterpiece series.
SummaryIn 1953, Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Michael Gambon) had a stroke and his condition was hidden from everyone while he recovered in this TV-movie that appears as a part of PBS' Masterpiece series.
It’s clearly a challenge to keep the story from being entirely mawkish, but Stewart Harcourt manages to invest it with authentic sentiment throughout. Charles Sturridge’s direction is attentive and well paced. ... Gambon is magnificent, making us feel every second of Churchill’s frustration and fear as the stroke robs him of his ability to speak, and the metaphorical weight of aging.
[Churchill's Secret is] awash in a deadening sentimentality, in addition to much received wisdom on why the children of great men go wrong. ... Churchill’s Secret has its strengths, among them the setting--the majestic Churchill family home at Chartwell--and the fine cast, in particular Mr. Gambon. For his scenes with his special nurse, Millie (Romola Garai), a wholly fictional character, he manages a faintly wicked buoyancy that is, at times, the one thing that saves them.