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. Ultimately, I just didn't think the story was deep enough. It was interesting, and especially the parallels between the situation in this play and the modern-day relationship between the Tory party and the BBC, but I don't think it needed two hours to tell it. Lukowski, Andrzej (16 June 2023). "When Winston went to War with the Wireless". Time Out . Retrieved 1 August 2023.

Lloyd Evans An unreliable history: When Winston Went to War with the Wireless, at the Donmar, reviewed Plus: at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, a provocative tale of an unlikely friendship

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. The General Strike itself is a juicy subject, but here it’s essentially reduced to a few tantalising vignettes. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? This production contains strobe lighting, haze, the smoking of a vapour cigar, and the appearance and firing of a gun

It’s a fascinating segment of history, when – as Thorne said in an interview – “everything could have happened in a different way” and his play creates a shimmering sense of the past as John Reith struggled to preserve the independence of his nascent British Broadcasting Company, then just four years old, by preventing it from being commandeered as a direct arm of government. Thorne adds: “I hope this whole play is a love letter to the BBC. I hope this whole play is a love letter to people in authority and how they find their way through these crises. Because I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it.” Yet something feels under-powered about this central conflict. There’s a lot of shouting – and Adrian Scarborough’s Churchill doesn’t help things. He gets a few nice laughs, but Churchill here is a caricature. There’s also an awful lot of history to crunch through: characters lob gobbets about Gallipoli and the Gold Standard at each other like hand grenades. Adrian Scarborough will play Winston Churchill, with Stephen Campbell Moore as John Reith. Further casting will be announced at a later date. The play stars Stephen Campbell Moore (The History Boys, The War of the Worlds) as John Reith, Adrian Scarborough (The Chelsea Detective, Leopoldstadt) as Winston Churchill, and Haydn Gwynne (The Windsors, The Great British Bake Off Musical).

Reith strikes a win by featuring trade union views but loses to the government’s edict not to air a conciliatory speech by the archbishop of Canterbury. The BBC’s future as a corporation stands in the balance if he does not bend to their will.

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. Meanwhile, boozy, eccentric, baggage-laden Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill (Adrian Scarborough) has an alternative plan - the British Gazette , a state newspaper edited by… Winston Churchill. It is an accomplished evening. How could it not be? It has in Tim Minchin a glorious lyricist, who throws out with casual levity the most strenuous of lines: “I’m God. You don’t believe me. But I forgive you.” Collaborating on Matilda in 2010, Minchin and Warchus delivered a great shot across the bows of the musical and theatre for the young. As the bighead weather reporter who, going to work on his ego, is condemned to repeat the same day in a small town he despises, Andy Karl is first rate: both limber and frenetic. Alongside him, Tanisha Spring is sharp-edged but smooth-voiced as the sound of love and sense. Other stage work includes The Audience, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Billy Elliot The Musical, and City of Angels. She has been nominated for four Olivier Awards, and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot the Musical.

Who are the creative team of When Winston Went To War With The Wireless?

Stephen Campbell Moore as John Reith and Adrian Scarborough as Churchill in When Winston Went to War With the Wireless at the Donmar. Photograph: Manuel Harlan