The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm looks at Winston and Clementine Churchill during a difficult stretch of the 1930s, before the Second World War. Churchill is a backbench MP whose warnings about Nazi Germany are dismissed by a Parliament that prefers to believe war can be avoided. He is also in debt and under strain, and his political isolation puts pressure on his marriage, while Clementine struggles with her own burdens. The film follows the couple through that unsettled period, in which Churchill's stance on Germany gradually begins to matter again. It is a drama about a marriage as much as about politics, and it stays close to the private life behind the public warnings.

Richard Loncraine directed the film, which was released in 2002 and runs 94 minutes. It came seventh in the features he directed, between Richard III (1995) and Wimbledon (2004). Hugh Whitemore and Larry Ramin wrote the screenplay, and Scott Free Productions made it for a budget of 12 million US dollars. Albert Finney plays Winston Churchill opposite Vanessa Redgrave as Clementine, with Jim Broadbent, Linus Roache, Lena Headey and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from around 7,800 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7/10 from a much smaller set of 79 votes.