The King Welcomes Churchill Back as Prime Minister | The Crown (Jared Harris, John Lithgow)

King George (Jared Harris) is delighted to have Winston Churchill (John Lithgow) as the prime minister once more and updates him on the status of his lung cancer, but urges him to keep it a secret from his family.

Season 1, Episode 1: Wolferton Splash

The Crown is based on Queen Elizabeth II as a young newlywed faced with leading the world's most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. The British Empire is in decline, and the political world is in disarray, but a new era is dawning. Peter Morgan's masterfully-researched scripts reveal the Queen's private journey behind the public façade with daring frankness. Prepare to see into the coveted world of power and privilege behind the locked doors of Westminster and Buckingham Palace.

#TheCrown #TheCrownSeason1 #QueenElizabeth #TVClips #MovieScenes

[markieboy]

Great acting by John Lithgow. You can see Churchill realising what the first crisis he'll have to deal with is going to be.

[bwtawny]

The look on Churchill's face when the King lit that cigarette.

[dantheracer]

I've seen this scene and watched this episode countless times. Yet only now at 1:48 I notice Churchill very briefly showing signs of emotion and grief for his dear friend the King while taking a swig of his drink knowing full well what's to come shortly thereafter.

[pujitarao]

I totally understand Churchill's look when he saw the King lighting up a cigarette. Like dude you have one lung left

[benjamineckford]

My one criticism of this show is how Attlee’s time as Prime Minister was glossed over. Attlee and George VI got on very well, they were similar personalities

[Hungaryboy]

I did not know that Valery Legasov was the king of the United Kingdom before becoming a nuclear physicist.

[Jonesyb]

Richard Harris would have been so proud of how good an actor Jared became, I feel he’s very underrated and most only know him from the Chernobyl miniseries, he has many, many more excellent roles.

[madabbafan]

The looks on Churchil's face:

1:25 : Your majesty, you look like death has run you over then hit you in the face with a shovel
1:53: holy crap, he's worse than I thought
2:07: Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the little donkey this is really bad, what isn't he telling me?
2:15 Distant future? Holy crap in a hand basket, he better not mean next week, I have three drinks parties to go to and I have the only invitation to them

[inigobantok]

Love how the pilot immediately set the tone of this show.

[davidgladstone]

Jared Harris was fantastic as George VI, he did it all. I think his fine performances were some of the very best in the entire 6 seasons of The Crown.

[anonymousboogaloo]

The King still had the stammer. Nice touch

[redluca]

They've grown. Going from resembling Gary Oldman and Ben Mendelsohn to resembling John Lithgow and Jared Harris. Plus not to mention Lord Halifax is now Winston's painter.

[JavertRA]

I think it took the war for Churchill and the King to get on - initially they clashed. Churchill had defended Edward VIII - the opposite of what you see in The King's Speech, possibly because they didn't think the audience would like it.

[robertyates]

The acting of both of these men is just absolutely magnificent. Jared Harris didn’t look much like the real King, but by God, you certainly believed he was the king in every episode he was in! And Lithguwvis wonderful as the older version of Churchill.

[tomawen]

I noted that some people were commenting about Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher and i only learned in the past 8 years that Gillian, while born in Chicago and raised in Michigan was also raised in London England. She has dual citizenship (i believe) in both the USA and UK and can switch effortlessly between speaking the King's English (my quaint if outdated commentary on "British" English) and Yankee English. I saw her in an interview on Youtube from several years for Harper's Bazaar and I fell over in my chair as she spoke like a Brit. Amazing with Americans speaking as Brits and Brits speaking as Americans but Gillian lives, breathes and does both. What a classy lady. I think she upstages Lithgow's performance as Churchill.

[michaelnewton]

King George is going to ask Churchill for 5, 000 tons of boron and sand.

[scytheio]

Churchill knew... his friend was on borrowed time.

[StigaWorldCup]

Lithgow was just amazing in this role. He is a very underrated actor & in my opinion as good as Gary Oldman in the role of Churchill.

[Bergen]

The subtle absolute horror mixed with utter sadness on Churchil's face when the King lit up his cigarette... only while watching this clip I have seen it, he probably realized that his good friend doesn't have long and he will have two Sovereigns during his tenure.

[KebabMusicLtd]

This audience with the King would have taken place on or about Friday 26 October 1951 as Churchill won the General Election held the day before. The trip that Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke Of Edinburgh took, was a month long tour of Canada. King George VI had just under six weeks to live.