When Winston Went to War with the Wireless - Donmar

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What is ironic is that whatever happened at that time, in WWII Churchill mastered the medium par excellence.

Wouldn't it be great if Mike Longhurst got a transfer before he heads off?

I'm not sure why a lack of transfers is considered a bad thing, it's not a failure if a show doesn't transfer and technically Michael Longhurst has had a Donmar West End production with Constellations

My bad
I’ll look again 

Saw this tonight and LOVED it!

Some spoilers follow. . .

This is SUCH an interesting story, 97 years old, yet as topical as ever, encompassing a general strike debilitating our Country, and a Tory Government (Winston Churchill serving as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's attack dog) putting pressure on the nascent BBC (in the year before John Reith solidified his position as the BBC's first Director General) to propagandise for the Government.

The era - 1926, strikes, radio broadcasting, variety acts, background sounds created by foley effects, precise punctuation, drab grey clothing, male politicians holding sway in machiavellian meetings, backed up at home by intelligent but pliant wives - is all SO perfectly realised!

The acting is fabulous across the board, but what really elevates the production is the complex writing of the character of the BBC's John Reith, and the concomitant contrary complexity of Stephen Campbell Moore's astonishing portrait of him: grandiose, tortured, idealistic, compromised, repressed, barely concealing an ever exploding fountain of emotions!

Campbell Moore's intimate and revealing performance is very special, like Gatiss's performance in "The Motive and the Cue," but Campbell Moore has more to work with, and the story is more relevant and more important to our lives today. Campbell Moore is at once buttoned up, cupping his words in a deliberate throat, while suggesting a stammering agitation at the forces restraining his grandiose ambitions: at one point, in private, he practically screams out his desire for greatness.

He is torn apart, in flashbacks, by his passionate and requited love for a man, Luke Newberry's Charlie Bowser (who he is willing subsequently to share his wife, Muriel, with!) and his religiosity, constantly on his knees praying at critical moments.

He is torn apart by his pursuit of principle, of giving a fair airing on the new BBC radio service, to opposition politicians and the Unions, and his desire to kowtow to a Government that could wrest control of the BBC away from him.

The electricity Campbell Moore breathes into this complex man is the lifeblood that lifts this show above a simple conflict between a Government and an Institution.

There are laughs too, mostly provided by the variety acts that populated the Beeb in between news segments: Haydn Gwynne's singer's assertion that you shouldn't be "cruel to a vegetab(uel)" made me laugh, though the biggest laugh belonged to the versatile Luke Newberry, whose skit, about the lies he would tell his Mum to prevent her discovering he was an actor, was laugh-out-loud hilarious!

It should be noted that half way through the interval, a quartet of actors, led by a mischievous Kevin McMonagle, rousingly perform such a variety skit, for those not queuing for the bathroom, in it's entirety.

It's not all Stephen Campbell Moore: Haydn Gwynne, calm, collected, and knowing, plays an extremely wily PM, Stanley Baldwin, and having performed Winston before in a TV movie, Adrian Scarborough's staccato bulldozing ambitious Churchill is pitch perfect! And Kitty Archer (her enunciation as evocative of an era as her name would suggest lol), Laura Rogers, Shubham Saraf and Mariam Haque are all terrific in smaller roles, in a cast that is spoiled for rich talent in small parts.

But, for me, Stephen Campbell Moore gives the career defining, destined-to-be-nominated, performance that makes this show so rich, elevating the show from an elegant entertaining 4 stars about a simple conflict to a majestic and mysterious 5 star memorial to a mercurial man torn apart by multiple conflicting desires!

Glad I booked.

Saw this last night and I couldn't agree more with Steve's review. Well worth every penny

Two sidenotes:
1. First time seeing something at Donmar and was quite surprised by how comfortable their seats were. Probably the most comfortable of all West End venues I've been to and I've already ticked the fair majority off the list

2. I noticed that four people left during the interval which for a play of this caliber was just baffling (they had paid for good seats too! 🤭 )

Got to laugh. I’ll be bringing down the average age then? 😂

This is really splitting the group! Poll please BurlyBeaR!