Gleeson moves from General to Commander

HE’D already proven his ability to play the General – so becoming Winston Churchill was probably an obvious career path for Brendan Gleeson.

But there were times when the Dubliner’s performance as Britain’s leader during World War II was so convincing, you would never think this was the man who played Martin Cahill or the gormless contract killer Ken in In Bruges.

The Irish connection with this BBC2 drama, Into The Storm, didn’t end there because it was directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. But it was Gleeson who dominated this 90 minute production from first to final frame.

Of course he was helped in that by a make-up department that worked overtime, but it was the voice and the mannerisms that showed just what a national treasure Gleeson undoubtedly is.

The drama begins with Churchill on holiday in France as he awaits the result of the post-war election caused by Clement Atlee’s withdrawal from the wartime national Government.

It was an election that Churchill was to lose, a result he couldn’t quite fathom as he believed he had saved Britain because of his leadership through the war years.

That was apparent from the flashbacks to key moments in Downing Street – Dunkirk, Pearl Harbour – and what emerged was a rounded picture of the man, warts and all.

The interaction with Roosevelt was fascinating; the American President in his wheelchair, his British counterpart in the bath before he emerges in all of his glory only to drop his towel – and then respond with the immortal line: “As you can see Mr President I have nothing to conceal from you”.

Winnie came across as a sort of balding Boris Johnson, blundering his way through the job and somehow emerging victorious on the other side.

And aside from all of the famous lines – “We shall fight them on the beaches” and “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few” – this was also an insight into the mind of the man himself.

The part played by his wife Clemmie (wonderfully portrayed in this by Janet McTeer) was equally revealing – even if his pig ignorance sometimes took her somewhere beyond breaking point.

And as with life for so many, his eventual ignominious election defeat came so quickly after his finest hour, as he joined the King to wave from the balcony at Buckingham Palace and accept the cheers of the grateful crowds at the end of the war in 1945.

The dynamic with Joe Stalin was a fascinating aside as was the internal pressures of a cross-party war cabinet. But this was memorable more than anything for the performance of Brendan Gleeson – the first Dubliner to emerge from Downing Street with real credit since Arthur Griffith signed the Treaty in 1921.

For more reviews see page 18 of this week’s Sentinel