Did Churchill really talk to people on the London Underground?

In the pivotal scene of "Darkest Hour" Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman), on his way to Parliament, ditches his car and takes the Tube. On the train he talks with some regular Londoners and this inspires him to change his decision about the peace negotiations with the Germans.

Is this based on actual facts - some anecdote at least? Or is it a pure movie creation?

historical-accuracy darkest-hour

Best Answer

It's an invention for the movie:

TheWrap put the question to “Darkest Hour” screenwriter Anthony McCarten, who not only wrote the screenplay but has published a companion history book about the events of May, 1940 — and in the book, he does not describe the scene in the Underground.

And McCarten admitted that no, it probably did not happen. But something like it might well have. “This is the kind of thing he did right through the war,” said McCarten of Churchill. “He would go AWOL, disappear and pop up somewhere in London with ordinary people, to find out what they were thinking. So that scene was drawn from deep research, but we have no record that it happened.

“It’s a perfect example of how you’re trying to dramatize verifiable events that might have happened outside the time frame of your movie, but which are very, very valuable for the dramatist in showing critical aspects of your story.”

Slate points out a deeper issue with the scene:

Historian Richard Toye undertook a massive archival dragnet that found the British did not, in fact, snarl along with Churchill’s speeches. Upon hearing them, some were inspired, many were dubious, and many looked to their family and neighbors to assess what they’d just heard. They didn’t cheer like Minnesota Vikings fans; they, in fact, thought pretty hard about what the speeches meant. This is another heartening example from history: Not only did Britain make the hard choice, they didn’t make it in a fit of rhetoric-induced adrenaline.