Churchill's People

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Churchill's People
Genre Historical Drama
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes26
Production
Producer Gerald Savory
Running time50 min
Original release
Network BBC1
Release30 December 1974 (1974-12-30) 
23 June 1975 (1975-06-23)

Churchill's People is a series of 26 historical dramas produced by the BBC, based on Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples . They were first broadcast on BBC1 in 1974 and 1975. It was produced to mark the centenary of Churchill's birth.

Contents

The series was considered misconceived for multiple reasons, such as the studio-bound production which offered little in the way of realism and the lack of available funding. Each episode dealt with a particular period in British history, and the quality was consequently variable. Much of the acting was criticised, despite the involvement of Richard Johnson, Robert Hardy, Alan Howard, Colin Blakely, Anna Massey, Gemma Jones, and Edward Fox, amongst others. The series was reviewed at some length in the programme TV Hell , which revealed that viewing figures had plummeted from 2 million at the series' launch to less than half a million by the fifth episode. The programme was swiftly buried in a later time-slot for the remainder of its run.

Nancy Banks-Smith in The Guardian described it as having "little to offer us but blood, horsehair and history. Though a hell of a lot of each." [1]

Episodes

#TitleOriginal air date
1Pritan30 December 1974
2The Lost Island6 January 1975
3The Coming of the Cross13 January 1975
4King Alfred20 January 1975
5The Saxon Dusk27 January 1975
6The Conquerors3 February 1975
7A Sprig of Broom10 February 1975
8Silver Giant, Wooden Dwarf17 February 1975
9On the Anvil24 February 1975
10The Wallace3 March 1975
11Shouts and Murmurs10 March 1975
12A Wilderness of Roses17 March 1975
13The Whip of Heaven24 March 1975
14A Rich and Beautiful Empire31 March 1975
15America! America!7 April 1975
16March On, Boys!14 April 1975
17The Agreement of the People21 April 1975
18A Bill of Mortality28 April 1975
19The Derry Boys5 May 1975
20The Fine Art of Bubble-Blowing12 May 1975
21O Canada19 May 1975
22Liberty Tree26 May 1975
23Mother India2 June 1975
24Mutiny9 June 1975
25True Patriots All16 June 1975
26Death of Liberty23 June 1975

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References

  1. Banks-Smith, Nancy (7 January 1975). "Churchill's People". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 February 2010.