The Crown’s Dame Harriet Walter thinks Clementine Churchill would have made a brilliant politician

Walter plays Winston Churchill's formidable wife
Ambitious: Walter believes Winston Churchill's wife could have rivalled her husband at politics
Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images
Hanna Flint23 October 2017

The Crown star Dame Harriet Walter believes Clementine Churchill could have been a politician like her husband Winston.

The celebrated actress plays Churchill’s wife Clementine in the critically-acclaimed Netflix series, and told Standard Online that she believes Mrs. Churchill would have been 'up to' a position in power.

“She was certainly up to it and she cared about a lot of things,” Walter said. “I think it would have been great for her to be born a little later, I think she was taken very seriously by her colleagues in Parliament.

“There is a lot of pressure in supporting someone like Winston - stress on his behalf. That must be almost as bad.”

Power couple: John Lithgow as Winston Churchill and Harriet Walter as Clementine Churchill
Netflix

In the series, Clementine’s narrative is focused on trying to get her husband to give up the Prime Ministership, which Walter believes she had more of a part in than is presented on screen: “I think she had a more direct effect on things that is seen in the show, but you know, drama has to make things short and direct.”

The actress will be back for season two of The Crown and she has her fingers crossed that she will return for a future Star Wars movie too.

Walter played a rebellion doctor who treated Chewbacca in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and recalled what it was like on set.

“I didn’t know the rest of the story of Star Wars I only saw the script that involved me, it was absolutely loopy,” she explained. “It really was [amazingly fun].

“I had two seconds when I barged into Carrie Fisher’s make-up session and I was supposed to be on set. We had a little hello and talked to her dog [laughs] so yeah it was a bit surreal, meeting all these people.”

The Crown season one is available on DVD now.

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