Winston Churchill: Difference between revisions

Switched political parties twice in his very long career (Conservative to Liberal, then back again). A very much beloved British Prime Minister, he is famous for his [[Deadpan Snarker|constant wit]] (e.g. Bessie Braddock MP: "You, sir, are drunk!" Churchill: "And you are ugly. Tomorrow morning, madam, I shall be sober."), his cigar-smoking (his scowl in the famous portrait, shown above, is because the photographer took his cigar away) and the Victory salute ("the bird" inverted, although ''he'' didn't invert it.)

Winning a world war (and funding the invention of the [[Tank Goodness|tank]]) will get a lot of people to forget your less popular policies, and some were very unpopular. He resigned from the War Cabinet in [[World War I]] after the failure of Gallipoli and his opposition to Indian autonomy played a large part in his isolation in the 1930s. Furthermore, [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|his second term as Prime Minister is generally regarded a lot less favourably than his first; the general rule is that he's considered a fine wartime leader, but not very suited to peacetime.]] In 1943, while PM, he did nothing to solve a [[wikipedia:Bengal famine of 1943|famine in Bengal]], which eventually killed 4 million people—instead expressing disappointment that Gandhi was not killed by it, however given that the war was getting increasingly desperate at that time, his distraction was somewhat understandable. He was also a noted racist, like most leaders and people at the time, believing that one should not help the Palestinians from subjugation by Israel, because "a superior race naturally conquers an inferior one", and supported the use of non-lethal gas on rebellious Iraqis and other "uncivilised tribes" who had been attacking those under nominal British protection.

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{{examples|Churchill in fiction:}}

* Pretty much anything set in Britain during [[World War II]].

* In ''[[Anno Dracula|The Bloody Red Baron]]'' by [[Kim Newman]], set during [[World War I]], Churchill makes a brief appearance as a member of the War Cabinet.

* The young war correspondent Churchill guest-stars in the [[Time Wars]] novel ''The Khyber Connection'', and is attacked by time-travelling assassins.

* Appears in ''[[Time Squad]]'', in which the main characters must go back in time and stop him from being a nudist.

* In the [[Time Travel]] / [[Alternate History]] novel ''The Proteus Operation'', people from a different United States go back in time to the 1930s to save the world from the Nazi Empire which defeated Britain. They need to find someone in politics to work with to save the UK. When the name Winston Churchill comes up they are about to dismiss him as all washed up and his career over. Then they think more about it and realize that he is untarnished with the defeatism and appeasement of so many others.

* When the cast of ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'' camps out on the floor one night, Mr Grainger does an impression of Churchill giving one of his famous speeches.

* A playable leader in ''[[Civilization]] IV''. His traits are Charismatic/Protective.

* Makes a [[One-Scene Wonder|short appearance]] in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]''.

* Appeared in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E03 Victory of the Daleks|"Victory of the Daleks"]], the third episode of the 2010 series of ''[[Doctor Who]]''. {{spoiler|He and the Doctor are apparently old friends, and he keeps trying to swipe the TARDIS key from the Doctor.}} He also turns up in the season finale [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E13 The Wedding of River Song|"The Wedding of River Song"]] in an corrupted version of the universe where every time is happening at once, where {{spoiler|he intrinsically trusts the Doctor due to feeling echoes of their friendship in the proper timeline.}}

** Interestingly, in the latter, he is not prime minister; he is [[Anachronism Stew|Holy Roman Emperor]].

* In the Doctor Who [[Past Doctor Adventures|spin off novel]] ''Players'', the Sixth Doctor meets Churchill in two time periods—1899, when Churhill is a reporter during the Boer War; and in 1930's England, just prior to the abdication of Edward VIII. Churchill also meets the Second Doctor, but that's [[Timey-Wimey Ball|another story]].

* [[The Ghost|Frequently mentioned but rarely seen]] in the [[Timeline-191]] [[Alternate History]] series by [[Harry Turtledove]]. When Britain allies with the Confederacy and loses the [[First World War]], he becomes Prime Minister in a coalition with [[Those Wacky Nazis|Oswald Mosley's]] Blackshirts on a platform of revanchism. {{spoiler|He is forced to resign when London, Brighton and Norwich are destroyed by German atomic bombs and the British counterattack is defeated}}. Every time he is mentioned, characters reflect on his gift of the gab (EVERY TIME).

** You really shouldn't be surprised, this ''is'' Turtledove after all. Like how every time Sam Carsten comes back to the fore we have to be told how easily he burns, and how pale his skin is, and how he always has to wear zinc oxide cream while on deck duty, and how he's sensitive to the Sun, etc, etc. If he thinks something's worth saying, Turtledove says it over and over again.

* Yet another [[Time Travel]] novel, ''Lightning'' by [[Dean Koontz]], ends with a time-traveling ex-Nazi returning to just after World War II and {{spoiler|persuading Churchill to finish off the Soviets as well, creating a much nicer world.}}

** Churchill would have liked nothing more. Roosevelt, however, was convinced he had a rapport going with Stalin and that he could "deal with him".

*** Probably not as it would have required a lot of blood and even he was tired of war by then. He would have liked to if he could snap his fingers and get rid of Stalin though.

*** I think the fact that military intervention in the USSR could only be considered and not acted upon is summed up by the name of the British plans for such an eventuality: Operation Unthinkable

* In the film,''[[The King's Speech]]'', about the abdication of Edward VIII and the ascension of George VI to the throne, Churchill was played by [[Timothy Spall]].

* Ken Follett's [[Doorstopper]] novel ''Fall of Giants'' features Churchill during [[World War I]].

* On ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'', after Leslie had to pull down her pants on TV to prove her innocence in sex scandal, she says this in a [[Confession Cam]]:

{{quote|''"It's gotten a lot harder to work in government. You think Winston Churchill ever had to pull his pants down and show his butt? No. But would he have? Yes. Now ''could'' he have? Well, maybe not towards the end of his life. But he would have. Because he loved his job."''}}

* [[The Eagle Has Landed]] was a fictionalized account of a real Nazi plot to kidnap Churchill on his native soil.

* [[William Shakespeare|Will]] becomes Churchill's speech writer in ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]''.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' gives him a [[Historical Villain Upgrade]], in which he was a member of [[The Knights Templar]] and actually helped ''masterminded'' World War II along with FDR and Hitler.

* The [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]] series imply that he was a son of the Big Three; Hades, Poseidon or Zeus. Its Wiki reveals that he is the son of Poseidon

* Gets a [[Historical Villain Upgrade]] as [[Axis Powers Hetalia|England's]] boss/dictator in ''[[All He Ever Wanted]].''

* "[[Suppers Ready|There's Winston Churchill dressed in drag, he used to be a British flag]]. [[Genesis|Plastic bag]], [[Rhyming with Itself|What a drag]]".

* ''Churchill: The Hollywood Years'' is an satire of [[Hollywood History]] where Winston Churchill is actually an American commando attempting to stop Hitler from marring into the [[British Royal Family]]. The Churchill the world knows was just an actor called Ray Bubbles.

* A political cartoon on the 7/7 attacks showed [[Tony Blair]] darting [[Superman|into a phone booth]] ... and '''flying''' out as Churchill (cigar in mouth) with the word "Resolve" across the chest of his [[Superheroes Wear Tights|Spandex suit]].