Churchill: the Hollywood Years (2004)

Director

• Peter Richardson

Starring

• Christian Slater
• Neve Campbell
• Antony Sher
• Jessica Oyelowo
• Mackenzie Crook

Last On

03:00-04:20 Wed 14th Mar 2012 80m
BBC3

Synopsis

Comic Strip supremo Peter Richardson's blunt satire on Hollywood's habit of rewriting history stars Christian Slater as the "real" Winston Churchill, a gung-ho American GI, and Neve Campbell as a spirited Princess Elizabeth, heir to the British throne. The Anglo-American twosome team up to foil a dastardly plot by Hitler (Antony Sher) to topple the monarchy via a backdoor deal with Britain's traitorous aristocrats. It's an amusingly bizarre notion, but Richardson's film fails to deliver on the promise of its premise, despite game performances. Churchill has its moments but the humour is wildly erratic, and the one-joke plot rapidly runs out of steam and sinks from being a giggle into being downright silly. And as a satire, this misses the easy target of the US's historical self-centredness by a country mile.