Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 8

NOTE:  THIS CLIP OF "THE GATHERING STORM" CONTAINS LANGUAGE WHICH DESCRIBES CHURCHILL'S CONCERNS ABOUT VARIOUS ISSUES.  IT IS BLUNT AND EXPLICIT.  PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Dreadfully missing his wife, Winston is greatly relieved when Clemmie returns home.  Meanwhile the Nazi regime, completely ignoring the Treaty of Versailles, increases its ability to make war.

As Ralph Wigram (Churchill's friend in the Foreign Office) becomes more and more worried about Britain's ability to defend against a German invasion, Churchill tries to reassure his friend by revealing a significant incident from his boyhood: 

When I was at school, I had a friend called Merlin Evans.  One day we were talking about what we would do when we were grown up.  And I don't know why I said this, or why I thought it, but I said one day in the future Britain will be in great danger and it will fall to me to save London and the Empire...It is my destiny.  And I truly believe it.

Absolutely confident it is his destiny to save England - and that his thoughts are not merely remnants of a school-boy's fantasies - Churchill assures Wigram.  "There may be a war...neverthless we shall win." 

Video clip from The Gathering Storm, a BBC-HBO co-production for television.

See, also:

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 1

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 2

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 3

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 4

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 5

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 6

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 7

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 9

Churchill - The Gathering Storm, Part 10

Credits

Clip from The Gathering Storm, a BBC-HBO television drama based on Volume I of Winston Churchill's six-part, Noble-Prize winning WWII chronicle. (The first volume is also called The Gathering Storm). 

For additional background, see Winston and Clementine - The Personal Letters of the Churchills, edited by their daughter Mary.

Not everyone agrees with Churchill's analysis of events leading up to the war.  See, for example, this article by Professor John Charmley.

Clip from The Gathering Storm, online courtesy BBC's WorldWide Channel at YouTube.  Copyright, BBC, all rights reserved.  Clip provided here for educational purposes.