ITV orders Churchill drama

UK broadcaster ITV has commissioned a feature-length film starring Michael Gambon as Sir Winston Churchill.

Daybreak Pictures, part of the Tinopolis Group, will produce the drama, with exec producers Hal Vogel and David Aukin overseeing production.

Churchill’s Secret – based on Jonathan Smith’s recently published book The Churchill Secret: KBO – will be adapted by Stewart Harcourt (Love & Marriage, Treasure Island, Poirot).

The 1×120’ film will be directed by Charles Sturridge (Da Vinci’s Demons, The Scapegoat, The Road to Coronation Street), with Timothy Bricknell (From There to Here, The Fear, Eric & Ernie) producing.

It will be coproduced with Masterpiece, for which Rebecca Eaton is executive producer. Following transmission of Churchill’s Secret on ITV, it will air in the US on PBS in 2016.

Set during the summer months of 1953, the show will see Churchill – during his second tenure as prime minister and in his late 70s – suffer a life-threatening stroke, which is kept secret from the world.

Told from the viewpoint of Churchill’s young nurse, Millie Appleyard, the drama follows the leader’s battle to recover as his long-suffering wife Clemmie desperately hopes the stroke will force him to retire while his political friends and foes plot over who will succeed him.

Filming will begin next month in London and at Churchill’s principal family home, Chartwell in Kent.

ITV director of drama Steve November and controller of drama Victoria Fea commissioned the show, while Tinopolis Group-owned Passion Distribution will handle international sales.

This month ITV has commissioned an eight-part historical drama series focusing on the life of Queen Victoria and a new drama version of JM Barrie’s classic novel Peter Pan, as well as an eight-part drama titled Jericho.