Churchill TV screen test unearthed

Rarely seen footage of Sir Winston Churchill, in his first screen test for television, has been unearthed to mark the 75th anniversary of party political broadcasts.
 
According to The Telegraph, in the black and white film recorded in 1949, Churchill, then aged 74, is heard complaining that the test will "enable me to see what are the conditions under which this thing they call TV is going to make its way in the world".

The video, released by the British film Institute, also showed Baroness Thatcher, newly elected as Tory leader, making a pitch for the housewives' vote. "You know men have not made such a success of it all the time. So to yesterday's men, tomorrow's women say hello."

There was also a clip from a stately Sir Hartley Shawcross, a Nuremburg war prosecutor who was the Labour Attorney General from 1945-51, arguing that the "well-educated, well-dressed, and well off can vote Labour".

The researchers had also unearthed previously unseen film from a highly negative party political broadcast about Tony Blair, shortly after his election as Labour leader in 1994, which depicts Blair contemplating a deal with the "devil" to sell his soul in return for winning power at any cost.