Churchill's Bodyguard

Season

2005

UK

8

This is a 13 part documentary, based on the journals of Churchill's bodyguard, Walter Thompson, who served the Prime Minister during WW2, and in years prior. According to this documentary, the journal was heavily censored by British security services when it was first published in 1951. Subsequently, the diary was declassified and Walter Thompson made several short movie documentaries. This is a compilation of all that previous work, plus new material added by the makers of this film. This same firm produced the multi-part documentary on Adolf Hitler's security measures during the same time, as well as a number of other World War 2 documentaries.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Walter Meets Winston

This meticulously researched series, narrated by Robert Powell, is based on Walter Thompson's memoirs. Thompson saves Churchill from being shot by the IRA.

S1 • E2

Lawrence & Walter Save the Day

After he became Churchill's bodyguard, Walter Thompson was given the challenge of keeping his boss alive during a visit to the Middle East. A leading British politician was a natural target for assassins and on several critical occasions, Winston was rescued by the enigmatic - Lawrence of Arabia.

S1 • E3

Nearly Killed in New York

In 1929, Winston Churchill ceased to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Thompson sadly stopped guarding the man he had come to regard as a friend. But, within two years, Winston's outspoken views had gained him new and deadly enemies and Walter was recalled to protect him?

S1 • E4

Indian Nationalist Assassin

Having kept Churchill safe from assassination during a 1931 US lecture tour, Thompson soon left the police force. It also seemed that Winston's career was over. But a sinister new force, which saw Winston as an implacable enemy, was rising, and threats to his life brought the two men together again.

S1 • E5

Nazi Sniper Plan

In the 1930s, despite being out of office, Churchill's opposition to Hitler's regime made him a marked man. When war seemed inevitable, French Intelligence heard of a German plot to assassinate him. Immediately Winston called his former retired bodyguard Walter Thompson to protect him again.

S1 • E6

Dangerous Travels

After returning to government and leading the Admiralty, Churchill ascends to the Prime Minister's post on the very day that Hitler invades the Low Countries. He immediately embarks on an aggressive campaign of personal diplomacy. Much to Walter's worriment, his travels include six trips to France on flights well within range of Luftwaffe fighters.

S1 • E7

Surviving the Blitz

The early days of the war bring some of Churchill's most difficult--and dangerous--decisions. As bombs rain down on London, the Prime Minister stubbornly insists on walking the streets among the people, watching air raids from rooftops, and visiting anti-aircraft battalions, with only Walter to protect him from the terror above.

S1 • E8

Attack at the Flying Boat Dock

Running a gauntlet of U-boats in the North Atlantic, Churchill and Walter set sail for American in an unescorted ship to plot Allied strategy with Franklin Roosevelt. Disaster comes closest, however, as the Prime Minister prepares to board a flying boat for the trip home and a crazed gunman lurks nearby.

S1 • E9

Winston's Double

A precarious trip to Moscow to visit Stalin is followed by victory for the 8th Army in North Africa. However, the Germans know that Churchill is travelling and try at least twice to shoot down his plane. His double is not so lucky?

S1 • E10

Suicide Attack in Tehran

After two Atlantic crossings and two trips across the length of the Mediterranean, Churchill grows increasingly frustrated with Roosevelt and suspicious of Stalin. When the three leaders meet in Tehran in 1943, the Germans launch operation Longjump--a plot in which elite commandoes parachute into the city, bent on assassination.

S1 • E11

The Kiss of Life?

Returning from the Tehran Conference, a sick, exhausted, disheartened Churchill survives his darkest night, with Walter keeping vigil at his bedside. Could Churchill have died of pneumonia that night in Tunisia?

S1 • E12

The Sewer Bomb

When Winston visits Athens he is supposed to stay at an hotel where Greek guerrillas have placed 1000 lbs of dynamite in a nearby sewer. They shoot at his plane and even fire on HMS Ajax his temporary home in Piraeus harbour.

S1 • E13

Love Him to Death

It is VE-Day and Winston and Walter have several journeys to make through the jubilant crowds. Winston wants to walk and at the last minute is pulled on to the roof of his car by Walter who breaks a woman's arm whilst protecting his boss.