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Film ensures Clementine Churchill is given her due at last

Kristin Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman star as Clementine and Winston Churchill in JoeWright's war drama Darkest Hour - Focus Features
Kristin Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman star as Clementine and Winston Churchill in JoeWright's war drama Darkest Hour - Focus Features

She was the steady rock behind Britain's wartime leader, the woman who provided steadfast support and advice to Winston Churchill during his many trials and tribulations.

But the role of his wife Clementine has remained relatively unknown, save to historians of the Second World War and those lucky enough to visit their marital home at Chartwell, in Kent.

Now Clementine's achievement, and the profound influence she had on her husband, are to be chronicled in a new Hollywood film.

New York-based production company, Maven Pictures has acquired exclusive rights to the biography of Clementine written by her youngest daughter, Mary Soames, and has appointed the Emmy-winning writer Margaret Nagle to write the screenplay.

Churchill’s living descendents are are cooperating with Maven on the film, according to his granddaughter Emma Soames.

Winston Churchill with his wife Clementine at Epsom racecourse for the Derby on 4 June 1949 - Credit:  Hulton Archive/ Central Press
Winston Churchill with his wife Clementine at Epsom racecourse for the Derby on 4 June 1949 Credit: Hulton Archive/ Central Press

Ms Soames, who is editor of SAGA magazine, travelled to Churchill’s family home in Chartwell, Kent, to discuss the project with Ms Nagle on July 13.

“Clementine had a fantastic life and deserves to be celebrated in her own film,” Ms Soames told the Sunday Telegraph.

"We are cooperating with Maven pictures. I went with the writer, Margaret Nagle, to Chartwell.

“We looked around the house at Chartwell and discussed aspects of Clementine’s life.

“Obviously, we have no final control over the film, but we are hoping that it will do justice to her life."

She added: “Kristin Scott Thomas did a great job at representing her in Darkest Hour."

Clementine edited her husband’s speeches, advised him on diplomacy, and smoothed over disputes between her husband and other world leaders.

During the First World War she organised canteens for workers in ammunition factories, and was awarded a CBE.

After World War II she was awarded an OBE for her aid work as Chairman of the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund and president of the Young Women's Christian Association War Time Appeal.

Winston Churchill with Clementine when she was his fiancee in 1908 - Credit:  Hulton Archive/ Hulton Archive
Winston Churchill with Clementine when she was his fiancee in 1908 Credit: Hulton Archive/ Hulton Archive

Churchill’s chief of staff, General Hastings Ismay, said that without his wife the “history of Winston Churchill and of the world would have been a very different story”.

Despite this, she is hardly mentioned in most of the hundreds of books about her husband, who is thought to be the most biographed person of all time.

Recently she was represented by the Cornish actress Kristin Scott-Thomas in the war drama Darkest Hour, which premiered in British cinemas in January.

Prior to the actress agreeing to participate in the film she insisted on the part being expanded to show the importance of the historic role.

Director Joe Wright acted on her advice, giving audiences a glimpse of how important she was in crafting her husband’s legendary speeches.

Despite this, Scott-Thomas said that even with the tweaks to the script the historic role was not fully represented in the film, and several historians agree.

“It is perfectly right that she gets more attention,” said Sonia Purnell, the author of a 2016 biography of Clementine Churchill. “No one really understood how important how she was until relatively recently.

“It’s only as researchers have gone through archives and reevaluated documents from her lifetime that it has become clear how important she was for Winston’s political career.”

Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Clementine Churchill in Joe Wright's war drama Darkest Hour - Credit:  Jack English/Focus Features
Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Clementine Churchill in Joe Wright's war drama Darkest Hour Credit: Jack English/Focus Features

Maven’s founders Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray are teaming up with the producer Sayoko Teitelbaum for the film.

“We see this as a film showing audiences an extraordinary woman whose strength and resilience played a major role in the shaping of a nation,” Styler, Rattray and Teitelbaum told Deadline Hollywood.

“It is also a movie about a marriage, and a couple who loved each other, respected each other, fought alongside one another — a couple we can all relate and aspire to, even living in the public eye.

“We feel Nagle is the perfect writer, with her ability to turn history into drama, to adapt this complex story and to bring Clementine to life onscreen.”

Ms Nagel won one of her two Emmys for the 2005 HBO feature film Warm Springs, which was about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor.