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Using newly-discovered film archive and photographs, based on private letters, diaries and paintings from the Churchill archives and inter-cut with superbly shot location sequences and interviews, Chasing Churchill is a series of three one-hour documentaries presented in high-definition and surround sound.
Winston Churchill died on 24 January 1965. His granddaughter Celia Sandys was at his bedside as he died, and she stood by his grave as he was laid to rest at Bladon within sight of Blenheim Palace, his ancestral home.
His public life was a remarkable journey - recounted many times by many people. But Churchill’s life involved another, much more private journey.
It was a journey in search of himself: to find stillness at the core of his boundless energy; to find solitude amidst the throngs of people he loved to have around him; to find contentment within the turmoil of his lonely, brilliant and troubled life.
Churchill’s quest for his inner-self took two forms: a constant thirst for exotic travel and a deep-seated passion for the exuberance of painting and the beauty of words.
Celia Sandys travelled extensively with Churchill towards the end of his life. Now, in this intimate portrait of her grandfather, she will be our guide as we follow in Churchill’s footsteps to the furthest reaches of the world.
By examining his art and literature, we will re-live his dreams, understand his anxieties and share his innermost thoughts.
We will travel to France, with which he had a love affair throughout his life, especially the south of France, a painter’s dream. We go to Cuba and South Africa, where, when little more than a boy, he began to write prodigiously.
We also take a trip to the United States, his vital wartime ally, his mother’s native land and the place where he said, if he was granted his time again, he would like to be born. And we pay a visit to Morocco - his favourite place to paint.
For Churchill, life was a battle: to defeat those who would threaten his way of life or his country; to overcome all the weaknesses he or others perceived in him; to express himself in pictures, words and deeds like few others have ever done.
Join Celia Sandys in Chasing Churchill and discover with her the real man behind the famous façade.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Episode 1: Wanted Dead or Alive
Celia begins her pursuit of the enigmatic private life of Winston Churchill at Sandhurst Military Academy.
He passed out from here in 1894 and immediately began a journey in search of adventure and danger to gain the adulation he craved.
After a brief but enthralling visit to New York, we visit the battlefields of the Cuban uprising of 1895, where he nearly died, and South Africa where, after an amazing tale of capture and escape, he finally found the fame that brought him public acclaim.
Episode 2: The Other Country
Churchill fell in love with the USA during his first visit there in 1894. It was the beginning of a life-long love affair.
Despite it being the land of his mother’s birth, it was an unlikely match; but it endured, culminating in the special relationship between him and President Roosevelt which was the bedrock of Allied victory during the Second World War.
During this middle period of his life, Celia focuses on Churchill’s growing gift for words and his deepening passion for painting, both of which help illustrate the inner-man rather than the public figure.
Celia travels extensively throughout the United States and to Egypt, which, like an ancient siren, seemed to lure him to the banks of the Nile at crucial moments in his life.
Episode 3: Worth Doing Once
In this, the third chapter of Churchill’s life, Celia travels to Morocco and to the south of France in search of those places which gave Churchill particular pleasure.
He called Morocco, especially Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains, “the most beautiful place on Earth”. Here, even during the turmoil of the Second World War, he found time to travel with Roosevelt and indulge in his favourite form of relaxation – painting.
