If you're engaged in a fight with something, then it is not with me. It's with your own blindness.
Philip begins spending more time away from the Palace, while Elizabeth spends more time with her horse-racing manager and friend Lord "Porchey" Porchester. Tension escalates after Elizabeth orders a direct line to be installed for Porchey. Elizabeth later tells Philip that he is the only man she has ever loved, prompting him to mouth an apology after she makes a speech at Churchill's eightieth birthday dinner. Churchill, meanwhile, meets with artist Graham Sutherland after Parliament commissions him to paint a birthday portrait. The two seem to bond, but upon receiving the portrait, Churchill is horrified by the way he is depicted. He confronts Sutherland about its accuracy, eventually admitting his pain at what ageing has done to him. Churchill resigns and requests that Eden replace him as Prime Minister, while Clementine orders that the portrait be destroyed.
This episode contains examples of:
- Age Insecurity: Played for drama.
- All Love Is Unrequited: The series implies, albeit gently, that Porchey harbours feelings for the Queen (of whom he is a childhood friend) — much to Philip's frustration and fury.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Elizabeth tells Philip that while everyone would have approved—and her marriage would have been a lot easier—if she'd married Porchey, she has only loved him. "Can you say the same?" Philip makes no reply.
- Artistic Licence – History: Winston Churchill actually stepped down as Prime Minister several months after his eightieth birthday, not just after the unveiling of Sutherland's portrait as this episode seems to imply. While the portrait was indeed destroyed, evidence indicates that this was done by an employee of the Churchill family, not Clemmie herself (although she approved of this act, and is known to have destroyed other pictures of her husband which depicted him in an unflattering way).
- Call-Back
- Porchey complains about how long it takes to place a phone call to Her Majesty.
- Churchill sits and takes tea with Her Majesty, which he'd refused to do on their first meeting after becoming Prime Minister.
- Commonality Connection:
- Porchey and the Queen share a passionate interest in horse breeding, racing, and husbandry.
- Churchill tries to establish one with Sutherland over their love of painting, but it's only when Sutherland realises that they've both used painting to cope with despair over the Death of a Child that the connection is established.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Clemmie seems very taken with Graham Sutherland, and does not deny it when her husband calls her out on it.
- Friendly Enemy: Sutherland is a modernist, something that gets Churchill's back up, and he accuses Sutherland at several points of being a "socialist". Nevertheless, Sutherland sincerely claims to have accepted the commission because he admires Churchill, and the two men end up finding some points of commonality and friendship. This is partly why Churchill reacts so poorly to the portrait that Sutherland ends up painting; he views it as a personal betrayal as well as political sabotage.
- Gilligan Cut: Sutherland's wife isn't present during the final painting because he wants to do it in silence, as he pointedly mentions to Churchill. Churchill agrees to remain quiet...then we cut to him pontificating away as usual.
- Graceful Loser: A violent argument breaks out between Eden and Churchill the first time he's asked to resign, but when he does decide to and sees Eden's car pulling up outside the Palace, he stops his own vehicle to get out and shake hands with the new Prime Minister.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Philip becomes jealous of Porchey because he spends so much time with Elizabeth. She even insists on having a direct line to him installed at the palace, which Philip resents as he had a similar request turned down regarding his friend Mike.
- Happily Married: The Churchills. She may have to do a fair bit of Parenting the Husband, but Clemmie is clearly devoted to Winston, and he knows that he couldn't have achieved what he did without her. The Edens seem to conform to this trope too, as Clarissa seems to have played a key role in making sure that Anthony convalesced abroad (and thus away from the pressures of work) after his operation.
- In Vino Veritas: Margaret says that she knows that Porchey still holds a torch for Elizabeth because he said so when he was drunk. Elizabeth doesn't believe it because, as she points out, drinking's "when the nonsense comes out".
- Meaningful Echo: To Churchill's first audience with the Queen back in episode 3. There, he is flustered and appalled when the Queen politely offers him a chair and a drink, insisting that according to tradition the Sovereign never offers the Prime Minister such comforts; establishing both his tradition-bound nature, his stubborn refusal to act like he's the same man he was in his Glory Days, and establishing his authority over and dominance of the Queen. In this episode, at his last audience, we find him sitting in an armchair with a cup of tea beside him, having come to accept that he's too old (and ill) to go on and it's time to retire (and by extension, heralding some modernising changes).
- Nice Guy: Porchey — in contrast to Philip.
- One-Steve Limit: Defied; Porchey's father is also nicknamed "Porchey". The nickname derives from Baron Porchester, the courtesy title to the Earldom of Carnarvon. Porchey senior was Lord Porchester until he became the sixth Earl of Carnarvon in 1923, and the Porchey shown here succeeded to the title as the seventh Earl in 1987.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Porchey.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Both Winston Churchill and Graham Sutherland have been through this, and turned to art as a form of release; Churchill identifies one of Sutherland's paintings (done, as it turns out, shortly after the death of his son) as being particularly bleak, while Sutherland links Churchill's bereavement with his seeming obsession with trying to paint the perfect picture of the pond at Chartwell.
- Really Gets Around: Porchey's father, according to Philip.
- Unusual Euphemism: Elizabeth has to explain to a bemused Philip the fine art of putting a horse to stud, including the act being referred to as "covering" rather than mating.
- Warts and All: What Churchill dislikes about his portrait by Sutherland, as he wanted the portrait to show him as a distinguished elder statesman, not as a tired old man. After arguing with Sutherland about the portrait, he admits privately to Clemmie that the portrait is the truth, and he can do nothing about it.
