Chasing Churchill: In Search of My Grandfather

Celia Sandys begins her pursuit of Churchill’s enigmatic private life at Sandhurst Military Academy, which he left in 1894 to begin a journey in search of adventure and danger, and to gain the adulation he craved. She travels to New York and speaks with former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who considers Churchill one of his personal heroes. During their conversation, Sandys learns that her grandfather’s leadership of Great Britain during World War II was one of Giuliani’s guiding lights during his own crisis as the leader of New York on September 11. She visits Brooklyn to find the brownstone where Jenny Jerome, Churchill’s American-born mother, lived and discovers that the actual location is something of a historical dispute. Sandys journeys to the battlefields of the Cuban uprising of 1895, where Churchill nearly died, and South Africa, where, after an amazing tale of capture and escape, he finally found the fame that brought him public acclaim. While in Cuba, she takes delight in visiting a cigar factory to see Churchill’s iconic Havanas — made by hand just as they were decades before.

Churchill fell in love with the United States of America, the land of his mother’s birth, during his first visit in 1894. It was an unlikely match, but it endured, culminating in the special relationship he shared with President Roosevelt, which was the bedrock of Allied victory during the Second World War. On a trip to California, Sandys visits San Simeon to tour Hearst Castle, where Churchill was a guest at the table of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies in the late 1920s. Worried about Prohibition, Churchill had stashed 10 flasks and 50 bottles of alcohol in his luggage, although once in the States, he found liquor flowed freely. She motors down the Pacific Highway, just as Churchill did on a pleasure trip to Hollywood, where he visited his friend Charlie Chaplin. In Virginia, she meets former Senator Harry Byrd Jr., son of the Virginia governor who hosted Churchill on a visit to the U.S. While Byrd’s father had fond recollections of the famous guest, his mother found Churchill’s predilection for wandering the house in his underwear rather offputting. During her concentration on this middle period of his life, Sandys focuses on Churchill’s growing gift with words and his deepening passion for painting, both of which help illustrate the inner man. Sandys travels extensively throughout the United States and to Egypt, which seemed to lure Churchill to the banks of the Nile at crucial moments in his life.

In this, the third chapter of Churchill’s life, Sandys travels to Morocco and to the South of France in search of those places that gave Churchill particular pleasure. He called Morocco “the most beautiful place on earth.” Here, even during the turmoil of the Second World War, he found time to travel with Roosevelt and indulge in his favorite relaxation — painting. Toward the end of his life, travel, friends and the solace he found in painting and writing became more and more important to him. As CHASING CHURCHILL comes to its conclusion in the beautiful setting of the Cote d’Azur, Sandys reflects on the life of the man she knew: a life that began on the battlefields of the world, blossomed through remarkable qualities of leadership and inspiration, but then began to fade into the melancholy of old age. Through the unique insight of his beloved granddaughter, viewers will come to know Churchill more intimately.