Anecdotes

A year before he died, Robert Hardy was interviewed by actor James Murray about this series for "Robert Hardy Remembers Churchill's Wilderness Years" at the Theatre Royal, Winchester, as part of The Winchester Festival 2016, with all proceeds going to The Murray Parish Trust in raising money for a new children's Emergency Department at Southampton University Hospital.

In 2016, Mark Lawson ranked this for The Guardian as the second most memorable television portrayal of Winston Churchill, beaten only by Albert Finney in La tempête qui se prépare (2002).

Robert Hardy and Günter Meisner have both played their respective roles of Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler in other films as well. Notably, Meisner played Hitler in Le souffle de la guerre (1983) while Hardy played Churchill in the sequel, Les orages de la guerre (1988). Hardy played Churchill on film a total of six times.

For his performance in this series, Robert Hardy was the only actor to be nominated in the 1982 BAFTA Television Awards "Best Actor" category who was not being nominated for a role in Retour au château (1981), as the other nominees that year were Anthony Andrews (the winner), John Gielgud and Jeremy Irons.

Robert Hardy played a school master in a previous biopic about Churchill, Young Winston. He later went on to appear in the Harry Potter films, which featured no fewer than five other actors who had played the part: Michael Gambon, Timothy Spall, Brendan Gleeson, David Ryall, and Gary Oldman. Miranda Richardson played Clementine Churchill in the film Churchill.