A la recherche de Winston Churchill

 

During the summer of 2010 a French friend sent me an e-mail in which he said that France Culture was transmitting a week-long series of broadcasts on Winston Churchill, and I absolutely had to listen to it.

So I downloaded the podcasts. The series was built around four hour-long documentaries following the career of the great man, with comments both by English people - such as Mountbatten and Lady Asquith, American journalists such as Ed Murrow, and of course, the speeches of Churchill himself with a magnificently discreet dubbing done by Michael Lonsdale.

The French are a more emotional people than the English, and the programmes pack a real emotional punch. I thought you might like to sample some extracts. I am using the audio subtitle technique that you will have seen elsewhere on this site. Download the two files, video and subtitle, store them to the same folder, and your video player will pick up the subtitles

(Right) click on the top half of the image for the video, and the lower half for the subtitle file
 Each of the programmes started with the same introduction, which sets the tone for the series. Here is the text
A short clip in which we hear Churchill described by a French speaker. There is some very nice French spoken in this series - although rarely by the English speakers !  Here is the text
Lord Mountbatten rises to the challenge of delivering a homage to Churchill in French. I admire Mountbatten, but must say that our Royal Family, who have difficulty with the English language, are even more disconcerted by French. Here is the text.
Here is a part of the French commentary (it was the ORTF in those days) of the funeral of Winston Churchill. I thought the commentary would be done by Léon Zitrone, who was the French Richard Dimbleby, but I am not sure that it is he. Here is the text.
(Right) click on the top half of the image for the video, and the lower half for the subtitle file
Here is a wonderful interview with a member of the French Resistance, who knew Churchill, and who speaks with knowledge and with emotion about the the great man Here is the text
I am not going to comment this, other than to say that the speaker is the great American journalist Ed Murrow

Here is the text
Jacques Duchaîne worked at the BBC during the war, broadcasting to France. Here he recollects how he helped Churchill prepare for the speech he made to French, and which you will find below

Here is the text
(Right) click on the top half of the image for the video, and the lower half for the subtitle file
The 18th June 1940 marks two great speeches. The French regard 'l'appel du 18 juin' of General de Gaulle as being the start of the Resistance and the recovery of France's honour. And. without, perhaps. being so conscious of the date, the British remember fondly the This was their finest hour speech of Churchill delivered on this day.

After delivering his speech to the Commons, Churchill broadcast it on the BBC. The Battle of France was over, and lost. The Battle of Britain, (which the French, quite rightly, call La bataille d'Angleterre), was about to begin.

It was fitting that the British call to arms should be followed by that of the French. So the first extract at left is from Churchill's famous speech Here is the text

However, there is an interesting story behind the De Gaulle speech of 18 June. Pétain had not yet signed the armistice with the Germans. The British government hoped that they might still persuade the French government to do a deal. So the speech that De Gaulle wanted to deliver was heavily censured. A week or so later - after the capitulation of France, he filmed his original version, and it is that the French know today.

But here is a clip from an excellent documentary made by France 5 which explains the background - and gives us the authentic version of l'appel du 18 juin  Here is the text
This is perhaps the pièce de résistance. The speech of Churchill to the French people, and in French. It is a long speech so I have edited the beginning and the end together. The end is wonderful - pure Churchill !   Here is the text.
There is very little criticism of Winston Churchill in the France Culture series. Mention is made of his military misjudgements, and Robert Boothby makes a brief appearance to say that it was in fact Churchill who was responsible for disarming the country during the war. The principal contribution is made by Paul Raynaud, who was - briefly - Président du Conseil at the time, and who was present when Churchill argued, against his own party, in the House of Commons, on behalf of the King, Edward VIII, who was about to marry the American divorcée, Mrs Simpson. After which, his career was, as the historian Pierre Assouline says, fichue en l'air... Here is the text
A lighter note is struck by this song which portrays Churchill as a superman flying to save the free world from the menace of Hitler and Mussolini.  Here is the text
And now the first of the great Churchill speeches. This is the 'we shall fight on the beaches'
I have been asking myself why I find the French translation so effective, so moving. I think it is that formal English works very well translated into French - you find the same thing with Shakespeare. Churchill's prose - the speeches were all carefully written - is elegant, rhythmical, and lends itself to translation into French. And of course the careful timing and synchronisation of the voice over with the voice of Churchill, is entirely admirable  Here is the text
1941, and Churchill is in the BBC stdios, speaking to the nation. This is the speech that includes Sail on O Ship od State and finishes Give us the tools...

Here is the text
1942, and the beginning of victory - The Battle of Alamein and the increasing success of the Royal Air Force. Here is the famous This is not the end ...

Here is the text
(Right) click on the top half of the image for the video, and the lower half for the subtitle file
The week of France Culture programmes consisted of an hour long programme each day based on the archives of Churchill's speeches, and other contemporary material, followed by a one and a half hour programme of interviews and discussions. (France Culture doesn't do things by halves) Here is an interesting clip - two interviews, the first with a lady who runs the Alliance française in London, the second with a French pupil visiting the Cabinet War Rooms.  Here is the text
Here is a very short and rather curious clip. The BBC Second world war correspondent Robert Barr recounts that a few days after the Normandy Landings, Churchill was taken on a tour of inspection, by boat, of the beaches, at that time still held by the enemy. At the end of the clip you will note that what Barr says in English is not quite the same as the French translation. But what is important is Churchill's enthusiasm. He couldn't stop himself from firing on the enemy !   Here is the text
Each day of this extraordinary series saw one hour of Archives - the speeches and commentary by historians, soldiers, Resistance fighter etc, then, in the afternoon, half an hour of discussion, followed by an hour of readings of the letters written by Churchill to his wife, Clementine. This is the first, written in 1908, during the Manchester election battle (which he lost, incidentally!)

Here is the text
Now a short letter from Clementine to Winston. They are married now, living at Blenheim Palace, and Clemmie describes an amusing day in which dogs get to tear a fox to bits.

Here is the text
Here is Churchill in 1953, once more Prime Minister, and preparing to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.

Here is the text

 

 

 
Our final letter from Winston Churchill to his wife, in 1957

Here is the text
The last couple of minutes of this extraordinary 12 hour series of programmes from the historian Pierre Assouline. A nice piece - but not particularly easy to follow. The language is quite dense.

Here is the text

 

 

 

 

 

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