February 28, 2015

Finest Hour 157, Winter 2012-13

Page 09

Robert Hardy is to play Winston Churchill for the ninth time in his career, opposite Dame Helen Mirren’s Queen Elizabeth II, in the West End. Peter Morgan‘s new play, The Audience, begins at the Gielgud Theatre on February 15th, running eight times a week through mid-June. It depicts the weekly meetings between the Queen and her twelve prime ministers from Churchill to David Cameron. Haydn Gwynne will play Margaret Thatcher, while Paul Ritter will play John Major.

Timothy Robert Hardy has previously played Churchill eight times, including Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years and, most recently, Celui qui a dit non in Paris (in French). He played Siegfried Farnon in the classic television adaptation of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small and is also known for starring in the Harry Potter films as Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge.

Directed by Stephen Daldry, The Audience marks a return to royal duty for dame Helen, who won an Oscar for her role in The Queen (2006), also written by Morgan.

Tim Hardy tells us he’s had a “bit of a go round” with the producers over his role:  “The script suggests that WSC tended to bully the young Queen. Of course we know that’s not true.” He’s quite right, as we quickly agreed—during Churchill’s weekly visits to Her Majesty, courtiers would hear peals of laughter coming from behind the closed doors at the audience room.

2025 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 42nd International Churchill Conference. Washington, DC | October 9-11, 2025

2025 International Churchill Conference

“It is rather an odd assignment,” continues our honorary member:  “I’m 87 and Churchill in 1952 was only 78—I’ll have to play it backward.” Tim Hardy is the youngest 87-year-old we know. If anything, his ninth edition of Winston Churchill will be too young!

“Nine is my lucky number,” he tells us. Well, we think he should make it ten.

*****

“No one should be surprised to hear that the White House might be haunted, given its history and age,” writes the San Jose, California Mercury News. “Glimpses of President Abraham Lincoln’s ghost top the list (he’s been spotted by everyone from Winston Churchill to Gerald Ford’s daughter Susan) and visitors have also reported seeing Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and first ladies Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison. Even William Henry Harrison, president for a mere month, still hangs out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from time to time. He’s said to haunt the attic.”

We’ve scoured our references for Churchill’s encounter with the ghost of Honest Abe, coming up blank. Can any reader assist?