Churchill: The Finest Half Hour

How did painting intersect with Winston Churchill's political career - and what do his experiences as an artist tell us about Churchill's psyche? Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explore some answers, with the expert help of Timothy Riley, Director and Chief Curator of America's National Churchill Museum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Special guest Tim Riley - Director and Chief Curator of America's National Churchill Museum - joins Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Docker to discuss how Winston Churchill discovered painting as a pastime during the Great War and its emergence as a significant part of his life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John 'Jock' Colville was a civil servant in 10 Downing Streeet in 1940 - and he viewed Churchill's arrival as Prime Minister with much scepticism. Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explain why Colville's doubts about Churchill evaporated - and how he recorded his wartime experiences working at Churchill's side in a diary which is an invaluable resource for historians. They reveal too h...

In the Second World War. one of Churchill's closest working relationships - and perhaps the most significant - was with the senior commander Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff from December 1941. It was a relationship which Brooke frequently found maddening, as he recalled in his diaries. But it was also productive. Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter analyse a partnership...

One man was right by Churchill's side from the dramatic summer of 1940 right throught to Churchill's death in 1965: his doctor, Charles Wilson, aka Lord Moran. In 1966, Lord Moran published a book - 'Churchill: The Struggle for Survival' - which discussed Churchill's physical health and alleged that he suffered from depression, the so-called 'black dog'. Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockt...

Winston Churchill's relationship with Ireland and Irish politics was complex and controversial. Churchill had a hand in partition and the creation of the Irish Free State. In the Irish Civil War. Then in the Second World War, Churchill's desire to access Irish ports led to testy dealings with the Irish government - and radical plans for the unification of north and south. Professor Richard Toye an...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr Warren Dockter discuss Churchill's role in the war which began in Ireland in 1919, including Churchill's journey from the 'hawk' who refused to condemn atrocities by British troops to the 'dove' who argued for a negotiated settlement. They explore Churchill's role in the treaty of 1921 which led to the creation of the Irish Free State and Churchill's relationship with...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explore Winston Churchill's long, complex and controversial relationship with Ireland and Irish politics. Beginning with Churchill's earliest childhood memories, they follow Churchill's political journey on most intractable political issue of the age, Irish Home Rule. They explain how Churchill abandoned the Conservative Party and the outspoken Unionis...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter discuss Winston Churchill's role in ending the General Strike on the government's terms, the enduring effect on his relationships with trades unions and the Labour Party - and the impact on his reputation in subsequent decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 1926. The General Strike is underway and dividing the nation. Winston Churchill leads the government's propaganda effort through its newspaper 'The British Gazette' highlighting alleged Soviet support for the strikers and casting the dispute as a threat to the parliamentary democracy. Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter deliver the inside story in this episode, 'The Red Menace and th...

Marking 100 years since Britain's General Strike in May 1926, Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explore Winston Churchill's central - and controversial - role in the government's response to the nation's first and only General Strike. They tell how Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill put himself in the front line of a propaganda war, founding a newspaper to promote the govern...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter discuss Winston Churchill's dramatic involvement in the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, when the British cavalry charged the Dervish army - and Churchill sought the fame and glory which might fuel his political ambitions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Winston Churchill continues to pursue distinction - and fame - by joining the British army's expedition in the Sudan. With the help of his mother pulling strings to secure him a a position - and despite the scepticism of the British commander. Plus Churchill's love of bathing and a strange request to make contact from beyond the grave. All this and more in this episode of 'Churchill: The Finest Ha...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter continue the dramatic story of the young Winston Churchill's adventures on the Northwest Frontier. A journalist. A soldier. And determined to make his name. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Winston Churchill experiences warfare on the Indian frontier at first hand - and builds a public profile in England with his reporting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Young Winston Churchill heads off to the frontier of India, intent on making his name as a war correspondent and soldier, entering a world of "fever, dysentery and bullets." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The location of WInston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech - Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri - is now the home of America's National Churchill Museum. 80 years on from the speech, Tim Riley, Director and Chief Curator of the Museum, talks to Prof. Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter about how the museum came to be and how it commemorates not only Churchill's famous address but his long care...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explore the immediate reaction to Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech of March 1946 - and its enduring legacy. Outlining responses by everyone from members of the British public to Stalin (who denounced the speech in forthright terms), they show how an address made in a small town in Missouri echoed round the world. They ask how a rallying cry for freedo...

Eighty years ago - on 5 March 1946 - Winston Churchill made what would be one of the most consequential speeches of the 20th century. Assessing post-war Europe claimed that "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter assess the background to the speech, its political context and the messa...

Dr Warren Dockter and Professor Richard Toye discuss the last eighteen months of the relationship between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevlet. They highlight the tensions leading up to 'Operation Overlord' - the Allied invasion of France carried out despite Churchill's preference for a continued attack through southern Europe. They explore the significan...

How was it decided that only Germany's unconditonal surrender would end the war in Europe? How did Winston Churchill make the case for the 'Germany First' strategy in the US Congress? What happened when the Allies' 'Big Three' - Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin - met for the first time at the Tehran Conference of 1943? And when did Winston Churchill realise that Britain was now a junior partner alo...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter chart the beginnings of the wartime alliance between the United States and Great Britain and the birth of the "special relationship". They begin with Churchill's visit to Washington in December 1941, his major speeches to the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament and follow the dealings between America's President Franklin Roosevelt and British Premi...

"No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt." So Winston Churchill remembered his efforts to secure material support from the United States in the 18 months between taking office as Prime Minister and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which brought America into the Second World War. Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explore the nuances and...

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter look at how Churchill galvanized the British war effort in the summer of 1940 - and how he expressed his belief that the fight against the Nazis must be a truly national effort, in a radio address where he spoke of "The War of the Unknown Warriors". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter discuss a decision which Winston Churchill called"the most hateful, the most painful and unnatural in which I have ever been involved." Namely the order to attack French warships at Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria, following the armistice between France and Nazi Germany. They explore the background to the attack - and how Churchill explained and justified the...