Matthew Macfadyen, Romola Garai, Daisy Lewis, Rachael Stirling and Tara Fitzgerald are joining the cast of ITV’s forthcoming Churchill drama.
They’ll join the previously announced Michael Gambon as Sir Winston Churchill and Lindsay Duncan as Clementine Churchill.
The two-hour special is set during the summer months of 1953 when Churchill, now Prime Minister for the second time, suffers a life-threatening stroke which is kept secret from the world.
Told from the viewpoint of his young Nurse, Millie Appleyard (Garai), the drama follows his battle to recover as his long suffering wife Clemmie desperately hopes the stroke will force Winston to retire while his political friends and foe scheme to plot who will succeed him.
Meanwhile his adult children descend on Chartwell, unsure if he will pull through, as tensions within his family begin to surface.
Other confirmed cast members include Bill Paterson as Lord Moran, James Wilby as Lord Bracken, Alex Jennings as Anthony Eden, Patrick Kennedy as Jock Colville, Christian McKay as Christopher Soames, Chris Larkin as Rab Butler and John Standing as Lord Camrose.
Filming starts this month in London and at Churchill’s principal family home, Chartwell in Kent.