Michael Gambon to play Winston Churchill in PBS ITV-Masterpiece film

PBS has announced that ITV and Masterpiece will co-produce Churchill’s Secret, with Michael Gambon set in the titular role of prime minister Winston Churchill. Lindsay Duncan will star alongside Gambon as Churchill’s wife Clementine.

The film will be based on Jonathan Smith’s recently released book The Churchill Secret: KBO, which told the story of Churchill’s stroke in 1953 and how his health issues affected his ability to lead. The stroke was kept secret from the rest of the world, and the adaptation will offer a look at what this meant for Churchill and the public at large from the point of view of his nurse Mellie Appleyard.

Stewart Harcourt (Love and Marriage) will write the adaptation, which is set to be directed by Charles Sturridge (Da Vinci’s Demons). Filming will begin this summer in London and at the Churchill family home in Kent. Churchill’s Secret will air in the United States in 2016.