His Finest Hour

My blog, long-mouldering, gets a brief revisit in the wake of Three Days in May, another fine play from Trafalgar Studios.

The subject of the play is that untouchable icon of recent British history, Winston Churchill, and specifically his 'wobble' in May 1940 when the War Cabinet was divided over seeking possible terms with Hitler by using Mussolini as an intermediary.

In fact Churchill wobbles only very briely, after a dispiriting visit from a broken French Prime Minister, and it is the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax who is the foremost proponent of making peace. Indeed Halifax, excellently played by Jeremy Clyde, is the most interesting character, his defeatism balanced by a sense that even though wrong-headed he genuinely believes he is acting in Britain's best interests.

The role of Churchill is one which is probably quite easy for an actor to play - all you need is a cigar, a gravelly voice and a bombastic manner - but not so easy to play well, and Warren Clarke does a fine job of it. He doesn't look much like the great man, but is believably human when he could have been a caricature.

Watching Three Days in May reminds one that however bad a state the world may be in at the moment, it's in nowhere near as a bad a position as it was in May 1940 when Hitler stood on the brink of the total subjugation of Europe. It is a worrying thought though, that should a similar perilous situation arise again where would the next Churchill be found? Can we really see Cameron, Clegg or Miliband filling such a role? But then there are no Churchills, no great men for that matter, any more. Their era has long since passed and the world in which we live doesn't seem to provide the conditions for them to return.