The First Churchills

This was an incredibly exciting series when it was first broadcast in North America - a first view of the riches of British historical costume drama. The story was a complex one, though much less complex than the actual history upon which it was based. I was swept away with admiration for John Churchill, fighting the French against great odds and with huge handicaps, and never losing a battle. The political scheming behind the scenes in England finally brought him down, and I felt as indignant as I'm sure Winston Churchill would have wanted me to at the shabby treatment given his great ancestor. The beautiful Susan Hampshire is wonderful as the love of his life, Sarah. The real Sarah was a very intelligent, indomitable woman who exercised great power before she and her husband were defeated by their enemies at court, and Hampshire plays her to perfection.

Fine BBC production about key players in a lesser known period of history, the fact that they are ancestors of Winston Churchill is interesting but really doesn't factor into the story. The real focus is about royal power struggles and the emergence of the Churchill line. A bit stagy and it shows its age in film quality but the performances make all that secondary. John Neville is good but this really belongs to Susan Hampshire as Sarah Churchill who is by turns kittenish, vixenish and noble. A top star in England since the 60's her talent is great and her presence enchanting it's a pity she's not better known. She is in the same league as Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.

This was the first and still my favorite presentation on Masterpiece Theatre. It was based on Winston Churchill's biography of his most noted ancestor, John Churchill First Duke of Marlborough. OF course with Winston writing it, John Churchill turns out to be something of a plaster saint.

Well, Marlborough may have been Great Britain's greatest land soldier, but a saint, no one but Winnie would think that.

What's not shown is Marlborough's political dexterity, his opportunism, his acquisitiveness. In the four volume life of the Duke, Winston gives some rather tortured explanations about certain incidents in his life. The series lightly glosses over them. Loyalty was not one of his bigger virtues.

A clearer picture is given of Sarah Jennings, the Duchess. She was close to Princess, later Queen Anne and through her really, was Marlborough able to rise to perform the great military deeds he did perform in the War of Spanish Succession. Another reviewer was dismayed how it showed that petticoat politics brought about his downfall. Yes, but petticoat politics enable him to rise in the first place.

Sarah was something of a shrew and could really wear on one's nerves. She certainly did with Queen Anne, who by all accounts was probably one of the most decent people ever to be monarch in England/Great Britain. That's what brought down the Marlborough hegemony of the first decade of the 18th century.

John Neville and Susan Hampshire will forever be enshrined in my mind as the perfect conception of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Margaret Tyzack is also a perfect Queen Anne, in fact the whole cast seems like it stepped right out of the late Stuart era.

Someday we may get a more accurate and balanced picture of the Duke of Marlborough and his era to compare this with. Maybe one not written by a descendant who was interested in glorifying the most prominent branch on the family tree.

I saw most of this fine historical mini-series when I was 12 years old( though I missed The Battle of Blenhiem episode)-and I found it very easy to follow.( But then again, I have been a voracious reader of history since I was about six.) The film is faithful to Winston Churchill's somewhat hagiographic treatment of his pretty roguish ancestors, and to the Whig interpretation of history , with brave England saving us all from having to speak French. Still, despite thhese faults, it is a very good costumer. John Neville, John Standing, James Villiers, and the incomparable Susan Hampshire put in excellent performances. I was moved by the death of Godolphins wife, and amused by the great scene when an anti- Catholic mob surrounds Nell Gwynn's carriage, shouting " Its the Catholic whore!". She answers " Be silent, good people, I am THE PROTESTANT WHORE", and they burst into cheers.

The name most people think of as best associated with the term PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND is Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. After all, he was the Prime Minister who was (with FDR and Stalin) the Big Three who won World War II, and he was also a man who was in the public eye as a political figure of the first rank from 1905 to 1955. Churchill was a great lover of tradition, and he would write several books of biography and history which eventually won him the Nobel Prize for Literature. His reputation as a historian is for his Memoirs of the First and Second World Wars and his biography of his ancestors John and Sarah Churchill, First Duke and Duchess of Marleborough. It is this biography, MARLEBOROUGH: HIS LIFE AND TIMES, that is the basis for this series.

The positive virtues are that it is well acted and produced, and well written. John Neville gave a sterling performance as the military genius who stopped Louis XIV's armies, and Susan Hampshire and Margaret Tyzack (reunited from THE FORTSYTE SAGA) were first rate as Sarah, the wife of Marleborough, who became the closest friend and adviser to Princess (later Queen) Anne of England, and as that monarch. The story describes how the three reach the apogee of power together, until Marleborough's enemies bring him down, even replacing Sarah with her cousin Abigail Masham (Jill Balcom) as the Queen's closest confidant. Assisting them in their rise was Marleborough's closest friend Sidney Godolphin (John Standing), who would be the Chancellor of Exchequer.

The story would also detail the history of British politics from 1678 to 1714, through the reigns of Charles II (James Villiers), James II (James Westbrook), William III and Mary II (Alan Rowe and Lisa Danieli), and Anne (Tyzack). This would include events that the Churchills, Godolphin, Anne, and others had to evade, like the Popish Plot, the revolt of the Duke of Monmouth (James Kerry), the 1696 Assassination scheme of Sir John Fenwick (which implicated Marleborough), and the wars of Europe caused by Louis XIV that led to the War of the Spanish Succession (1702 - 1714) which left England (barely) the most powerful state in Europe. Marleborough's strategic and diplomatic brilliance gave England the margin to beat France - but Louis was able to take advantage of serious political schisms in Britain between Marleborough and his followers, Robert Harley (Richard Pearson), Harley's ally and later rival Henry St. John (Michael Attwell), and the Duke of Shrewsberry to pull some of France's chestnuts out of the fire.

This was a weighty piece of history, and the performances were quite delightful (James Villiers gave Charles II just the right lightness of touch to make one realize how formidable a political opponent he really was). But the problem is that John and Sarah are shown to be always right and always looking out for Britain's best interests. In fact, the Tories were quite critical of John Churchill as an opportunist who knew when to switch sides in time (like his predecessor, General George Monk in 1660, or the future French statesman, Charles Talleyrand). He was also exceptionally gifted at feathering his nest (Sarah got him a lot of money through her contacts with Anne, and he was willing to take "gifts" from various European allies). Sir Winston evades this - feeling it is so much "propaganda" by Marleborough's enemies. If so, the propaganda has not been totally dismissed by historians since the 1930s (when the biography was written). Nor was it dismissed by Whig historians prior to Churchill writing his biography. Thomas Macauley's A HISTORY OF ENGLAND is quite open about John Churchill's greed - but he died before he really discussed Churcill's military victories at Ramilies, Blenheim. Maplaquet, Oudenarde, etc.

By all means, if you see the series enjoy it. But do some personal reading on your own to see the other side of the coin regarding John and Sarah.