The First Churchills

I have taken a break from watching Fall of Eagles to watch an even older (in both senses) historical BBC drama series, The First Churchills.

Made in 1969 (and so just in time for Monty Python's Flying Circus to come along and make fun of it and period dramas of its ilk), this series stars John "Baron Munchausen" Neville as John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and Susan Hampshire as Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, and is set over the course of their life together, from 1673 when they first met through to 1714 when Queen Anne died.

Their lives are divided up into 12 episodes, with the first two concentrating on their meeting, falling in love, and then marrying. The rest sees one or both of them getting involved in major political and military matters of the day, due to their closeness to a succession of Kings and Queens of Britain: first Charles ii (who takes his doggy with him everywhere), then his brother James vii, then his daughter and son-in-law Mary and William, then finally her sister Anne.

Other major characters include John's best friend Sidney Godolphin (John Standing, Sam Collins in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and Sarah's best friend - for a while - Queen Anne is played by Margaret "Antonia" Tyzack.

As with I Claudius and Fall of Eagles, there are a lot of minor characters who come and go over the course of the series, either for a single episode or else recurring as required. Some of the most notable include Michael "Captain Needa" Culver as John's brother Charles Churchill, (which is noteworthy mainly because there does seem to be a close physical resemblance between the two actors), Kevin Stoney makes his obligatory one-scene appearance (here as an Archbishop), and the main antagonist of the series is the French King Louis xiv, played by Robert Robinson (no, not that one, would that it were).

In the later episodes John Churchill is captain-general of all of Britain's army, and spends most of his time fighting wars against France. Due to the nature of this sort of series, we see virtually nothing of the actual battles - a handful of soldiers and a single cannon, in a field and on film, stand as shortpaw for the entire army. What we see is the generals and other important mannys making their plans and receiving reports in their tents, and in its own way this is just as enthralling, while being far easier on the BBC budget.

This is an interesting period of history, and this series gives viewers a solid overview of it, using the OTP of John and Sarah Churchill as POV characters gives it a unique perspective and sense of thematic cohesion. However, they are portrayed as unambiguous goodys throughout, so it may not be totally historically accurate. This could be because the series was based on the book Marlborough: His Life and Times by a manny who, by a curious coincidence, had the same surname as the Churchills.