0:00:07 > 0:00:12This is the Palace of Versailles, on the outskirts of Paris.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Here, on the 28th of June 1919,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18the victors of the First World War gathered to sign the treaty
0:00:18 > 0:00:21which would definitively end the conflict,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24would exact revenge on Germany,
0:00:24 > 0:00:25and redraw the map of Europe.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37Representing Britain and her empire in the magnificent Hall of Mirrors
0:00:37 > 0:00:38on that extraordinary day
0:00:38 > 0:00:41was the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44It was the pinnacle of a career
0:00:44 > 0:00:49that had started as a small-town solicitor in North Wales.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51He'd gone on to become a reforming chancellor
0:00:51 > 0:00:53and a charismatic war leader,
0:00:53 > 0:00:58earning himself the title "the man who won the war".
0:00:58 > 0:01:01But he was also my great-great-grandfather.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09Even though it's 70 years since his death,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12he remains a controversial figure.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15It's apt to talk about him in a hall of mirrors,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19because the truth remains very hard to pin down.
0:01:19 > 0:01:20He was brilliant, certainly,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23but he was slippery, devious,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25and he was involved in financial scandals
0:01:25 > 0:01:28that, today, would ruin any political career.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40He was a serial womaniser, he was nicknamed The Goat.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44He had such a long and intense relationship with a young secretary
0:01:44 > 0:01:48that for years he effectively had two wives.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52I'm descended from Lloyd George's daughter by his first marriage,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55so that side of his character we didn't talk too much about
0:01:55 > 0:01:57within the family.
0:02:03 > 0:02:04In this programme,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06I want to discover more about this complex character.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09I want to understand what motivated him.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14How did this radical liberal go on to become an imperial overlord?
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Why, 100 years after he was made Prime Minister,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20is he not remembered today as a Churchillian figure?
0:02:20 > 0:02:26Is it, perhaps, because he's the man who won the war, but lost the peace?
0:02:46 > 0:02:49This is Lloyd George country - North West Wales.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51There's the town of Criccieth.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54This is pretty much the westernmost part of Britain,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59and it's astonishingly beautiful - big skies, rugged landscape,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02where the mountains come down to the water's edge.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06It's where I spent lots of happy holidays as a child.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09David Lloyd George's daughter, Olwen, was my great-nain -
0:03:09 > 0:03:10great-grandmother.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13She lived in a big farmhouse just over there.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Her husband, my great-taid - grandfather -
0:03:16 > 0:03:18died up on his sheep farm up on the hills behind.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21My mum was born just over this hill here.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24And this is Moel y Gest, this was a big mountain of my youth.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26It looks a bit smaller now.
0:03:26 > 0:03:27If I climbed this without complaining,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29I got an ice cream afterwards.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34And this is, well, little changed since he was a child here
0:03:34 > 0:03:36at the end of the 19th century.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39I often think of him walking these hills, being inspired,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41being shaped by the community up here,
0:03:41 > 0:03:43but also looking out there at the sea,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47and realising the opportunities that lay beyond the horizon.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03David Lloyd George wasn't born in Wales,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06but in Manchester in 1863.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10He moved to North Wales a year later when his father died,
0:04:10 > 0:04:11and was brought up by his uncle
0:04:11 > 0:04:14in the Welsh-speaking village of Llanystumdwy.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19My nain used to paint a picture of David Lloyd George's childhood
0:04:19 > 0:04:21in the most gruesome possible terms,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25you know, he was poor as a church mouse. Is that true?
0:04:25 > 0:04:26Well, they were poor,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31but they certainly weren't the poorest of the poor. His uncle,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33who brought him up, was a cobbler.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35He didn't make an awful lot of money from being a cobbler,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38but his mother did have some resources.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41So they weren't absolutely penniless.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44His uncle read a great deal,
0:04:44 > 0:04:46there were lots of books in the house.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48They were also a very religious household,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51so that had a huge influence throughout his career.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55His relationship with this part of North Wales is interesting,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59because on the one hand it was clear that he was excited about leaving
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and seizing the opportunities that the world, and London, had to offer,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04but, of course, there's also the sense in which
0:05:04 > 0:05:05he wanted to return here
0:05:05 > 0:05:08and eventually wanted to be buried and to die here.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11What do you think his feelings were towards this place?
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Without question, I think there is a tendency sometimes
0:05:14 > 0:05:16to see this part of the world as marginal
0:05:16 > 0:05:17to the Industrial Revolution
0:05:17 > 0:05:20or marginal to the great developments of the 19th century.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22That's just not the right way to see it.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27I think this area, politically, was very, very significant for him.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29And he never lost his belief
0:05:29 > 0:05:32that there was something fundamentally wrong
0:05:32 > 0:05:35with the way in which wealth was distributed in this area.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38It wasn't a poor backwater when he was growing up.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41This was a thriving area with a slate industry,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43but also with tourism.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46The railway had come here in the late 1860s,
0:05:46 > 0:05:48there were ships trading around the world,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51but the wealth that came out of all of that
0:05:51 > 0:05:54was very, very unequally shared.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55And that, I think, is probably,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58as he perhaps would have sat somewhere like this,
0:05:58 > 0:05:59looking around him,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03he would have noticed how much of the land that he was surveying
0:06:03 > 0:06:06was actually not owned by the people who worked it.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10OK, but I mean, it's fair to say that no previous Prime Minister
0:06:10 > 0:06:12to Lloyd George had anything like that kind of upbringing.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14He was the first person from a humble background.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19The trajectory that Lloyd George followed from such humble beginnings
0:06:19 > 0:06:22to becoming Prime Minister of the British Empire
0:06:22 > 0:06:26in its greatest hour of need, the trajectory is unparalleled -
0:06:26 > 0:06:28there's nobody who travelled such a path.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Lloyd George's roots were here in North Wales,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38but his ambitions were too big to be contained
0:06:38 > 0:06:40in just one corner of the country.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42This was a young man in a hurry.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44TRAIN WHISTLES
0:06:54 > 0:06:56David Lloyd George was a most unlikely person
0:06:56 > 0:06:59to become Britain's First World War leader.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01He was from an anti-war party, the Liberals,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05from nonconformist, chapel-going Wales.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07He was not part of the establishment.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13He didn't go to Oxford or Cambridge,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16and didn't have any military training.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18TRAIN WHISTLES
0:07:21 > 0:07:23He was the ultimate outsider.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27This train's played a special part in our family story.
0:07:27 > 0:07:33Not only numerous childhood holidays spent riding on this train,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37but also my nain always said to me that when her parents were courting,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40my great-taid would come down from the slate mines
0:07:40 > 0:07:43and visit my great-nain on this train, as well.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45TRAIN WHISTLES
0:07:45 > 0:07:48And, of course, David Lloyd George used to use this train
0:07:48 > 0:07:50when he was up visiting the slate quarries.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52He had a roaring practice as a solicitor
0:07:52 > 0:07:54and worked with many of the mines up there.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57And legend has it this was his private compartment.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59A little shelf here for him.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02He could put out his work, and he could work here in private.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10The rumour was that he had blinds fitted to these windows
0:08:10 > 0:08:14so he could enjoy a bit of privacy with his secretary.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Rumours about his sexual promiscuity started quite early.
0:08:18 > 0:08:19TRAIN WHISTLES
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Whatever the truth of them,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23he was certainly an incredibly charismatic man -
0:08:23 > 0:08:26piercing blue eyes, a great speaker -
0:08:26 > 0:08:28he was a natural for going into politics.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30People have compared him to early Bill Clinton
0:08:30 > 0:08:32or Tony Blair in that respect.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40In 1890, he won a by-election
0:08:40 > 0:08:43and was elected the local Liberal MP,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46winning by just 19 votes.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Initially he spoke on Welsh issues,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51on temperance, and the Welsh Church.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54But he soon made a name for himself as an antiestablishment figure.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Lloyd George did feel that he was a man of the people,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and did feel different, and an outsider in Westminster.
0:09:01 > 0:09:02Very much so.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04And this is something that always marks him.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06He's a Welsh speaker,
0:09:06 > 0:09:07his first language is not English,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10he's from a very ordinary background,
0:09:10 > 0:09:11he's a very ambitious man,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15he's on the way to the top, nothing is going to stop him getting there.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20In terms of his broader attitudes, this is a liberal imperialist.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22He believes in the British Empire,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24he believes in the idea of the British Empire expanding,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27but he has criticisms of that empire and how it is run.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31The issue that brought Lloyd George to national attention
0:09:31 > 0:09:32was the Boer War.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35He thought the conflict in South Africa was a bad war,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38as Barack Obama might have said, a dumb war.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43When he spoke out against it in Parliament, he was in the minority,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46a firebrand anti-war activist.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49He caused a riot at a meeting in Birmingham
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and had to escape disguised as a policeman.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54But it made him a public figure of note.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Lloyd George was only 27 when he became an MP
0:10:01 > 0:10:02and entered this place.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04He quickly established himself
0:10:04 > 0:10:07as one of the most dynamic and remarkable politicians
0:10:07 > 0:10:09of his generation.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14And he served here a long and extraordinary career until 1945.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17And all that earned him, well, pride of place,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20his statue now stands at the very entrance
0:10:20 > 0:10:22to the House of Commons Chamber
0:10:22 > 0:10:24alongside his old friend, Winston Churchill.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38SHOUTING AND JEERING
0:10:41 > 0:10:45The young MP that entered this chamber, David Lloyd George,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47was a radical liberal.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51He was determined to reform the system, and he did.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53He actually managed to become Chancellor of the Exchequer.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57And, in 1909, after vicious debate in here,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59he managed to pass the People's Budget,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01one of the most important reforming documents
0:11:01 > 0:11:02in British history.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05It established, for the first time, old-age pensions,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09national insurance. It was something of a breakthrough,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12it laid the foundations of the modern welfare state.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Today those achievements are still admired,
0:11:15 > 0:11:20even by senior Labour Party figures, like his biographer, Roy Hattersley.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22In a sense, he invented the welfare state.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24People had talked about it before Lloyd George,
0:11:24 > 0:11:25indeed, Asquith had announced the intention
0:11:25 > 0:11:27of having an old-age pension,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30but Lloyd George introduced the old-age pension, health insurance,
0:11:30 > 0:11:31unemployment insurance.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33And not only did he introduce the bills,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35but he said the right things about them.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38He talked about the community being responsible for its weakest members.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40He talked about the rich helping the poor.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42He was a radical in thought as well as in action.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45There's no politician who did quite so much, in so short a time.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Those six years are spectacular years,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50which no other politician can match, I think.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Everybody comments on Lloyd George's enormous charisma,
0:11:53 > 0:11:55particularly when it came to public speaking.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58It's very hard for us to imagine what that was like,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02because, unlike Churchill, who was in many ways his protege,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04there are no recordings of Lloyd George
0:12:04 > 0:12:06at the peak of his powers.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09We have been able to find one from the early 1930s.
0:12:09 > 0:12:10He is talking about unemployment,
0:12:10 > 0:12:15and you do just get a hint of how good he was.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17We have recently increased the dole.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22What is needed is to find work.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27There are plenty of jobs for all,
0:12:27 > 0:12:32jobs which the nation needs done.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37We must recast, remodel, and reconstruct.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41'One of the most notable historians of the First World War
0:12:41 > 0:12:42'is Margaret MacMillan.'
0:12:42 > 0:12:45- Hey, Dan.- Hello, Margaret. - Nice to see you, how are you?
0:12:45 > 0:12:46'She's also my auntie Margie,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50'another member of the Lloyd George dynasty.'
0:12:50 > 0:12:52Lloyd George understood the power of the word.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54I mean, he was a great orator himself,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57and I think he grasped, earlier than a lot of people,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01the power of the new form of mass media, which was the mass newspaper.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04I mean, these newspapers had circulations of a million or more,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07his speeches were reported all over the British Empire.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09And he was a great orator.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12I mean, if you read them now, they still read very well.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15By the summer of 1914,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Lloyd George was second only to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith
0:13:19 > 0:13:20in the Liberal government.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24He'd been primarily focused on domestic matters,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27but like many British politicians since - Tony Blair, for example -
0:13:27 > 0:13:31Lloyd George was to be defined by foreign affairs.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37As Britain basked in that last summer of peace,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40even senior politicians, like Lloyd George, didn't see it coming.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Here he is in a photograph taken just six days before
0:13:45 > 0:13:48the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50He's watching Trooping the Colour,
0:13:50 > 0:13:52seemingly without a care in the world.
0:13:52 > 0:13:53GUNSHOT
0:13:53 > 0:13:57But the shooting in Sarajevo triggered a slide towards war
0:13:57 > 0:14:01which international diplomacy was powerless to prevent.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04During the tense discussions that led up to
0:14:04 > 0:14:07the British government's declaration of war in 1914,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Lloyd George was a pivotal figure.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Not only was he probably the most popular member of cabinet,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15but he still had that reputation
0:14:15 > 0:14:18from his old anti-Boer War campaigning
0:14:18 > 0:14:19as a bit of a pacifist.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23So if he'd come out strongly against going to war, it's hard to see
0:14:23 > 0:14:26how the government could have taken Britain into the struggle.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28I think Lloyd George was a key swing member.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30I mean, we don't know exactly what happened
0:14:30 > 0:14:32in those crucial cabinet meetings over the weekend,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36but we have enough diaries, and enough letters, enough reminiscences
0:14:36 > 0:14:37to get a picture.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39And I think the Cabinet was very badly divided,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43but he became convinced, it appears, in the course of that weekend
0:14:43 > 0:14:47that Britain had no choice but to enter the war.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50And I think if he'd joined the very determined bunch -
0:14:50 > 0:14:52the minority, but very determined -
0:14:52 > 0:14:54who said that Britain should stay out of the war,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56it would have split the Liberal Party.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58And if there was anything the Liberals worried about
0:14:58 > 0:15:01more than going to war, it was letting the Tories back in.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04You get a real sense of the tension and of the personal toll
0:15:04 > 0:15:07that all this decision-making was having on the participants
0:15:07 > 0:15:11in a series of notes written by Lloyd George
0:15:11 > 0:15:13to his wife, Margaret, back in Wales.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16On the 27th of July 1914, he wrote,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19"Austria, Serbia is pandemonium let loose."
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Little did he know how true that would prove.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26The following day, 28th, he wrote, "War trembling in the balance."
0:15:26 > 0:15:29The day after, "Very grave Cabinet this morning."
0:15:29 > 0:15:31And finally, on the 3rd of August,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34"I am moving through a nightmare world these days.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37"I am horrified at the prospect of it,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40"but I must bear my share of the ghastly burden,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43"though it scorches my flesh to do so."
0:15:43 > 0:15:47On the following day, the 4th of August 1914,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Britain declared war against Germany.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53Once war was declared,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56the British Expeditionary Force was dispatched to France,
0:15:56 > 0:15:58and the Navy deployed.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01But this was a war that wasn't supposed to happen.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Britain only had a small standing army,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06and there was an urgent need to recruit more soldiers.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Unlike his colleagues,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Lloyd George was a recognisably modern politician.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14He was seen as crucial in appealing for volunteers
0:16:14 > 0:16:16and setting out the case for war.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22Lloyd George quickly became the public face of the government.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25He would tour the country making speeches and meeting the people.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28He gave one particularly famous speech in London
0:16:28 > 0:16:31on the 19th of September 1914,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33just a few weeks after the outbreak of war.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37In that speech, he set out the government's case for war.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39He was an incredibly gifted orator,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43he'd learned his skills in the dissenting chapels of Criccieth,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46but on this particular night, he was nervous.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49He was worried that he wouldn't be able to play his audience,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51as he so usually did, like a violin.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53He rehearsed and rehearsed,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55and was struggling to get the tone right.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57APPLAUSE
0:17:04 > 0:17:10"My Lords, ladies and gentlemen," he started,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13"I've come here this afternoon to talk to my fellow countrymen
0:17:13 > 0:17:18"about this great war and the part we ought to take in it."
0:17:18 > 0:17:21And he went on to list the reasons why he thought it was correct
0:17:21 > 0:17:25that His Majesty's government had sided with Belgium and France
0:17:25 > 0:17:27against Germany.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30It's full of soaring rhetoric, it's wonderful stuff,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34but it also contains passages that would, perhaps, be more accessible
0:17:34 > 0:17:35for the man on the street,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39showing that he had a real grasp of communicating in that era.
0:17:39 > 0:17:40He makes a joke,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44he says that the Kaiser's troops are all six foot two,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46and the Kaiser's allies are all six-foot-two nations,
0:17:46 > 0:17:51"but, ah, the world owes much to the little five-foot-five nations."
0:17:51 > 0:17:54A reference, of course, to places like Belgium and Wales,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56but also, a reference to his own height -
0:17:56 > 0:17:57he was only five foot six,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and the audience loved it.
0:17:59 > 0:18:00We're told they laughed.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03LAUGHTER
0:18:03 > 0:18:08It's difficult now to fully grasp how good he was as a speaker.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Lloyd George was kind of more outgoing, more communicative,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14more willing to listen to other people.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19And the way that he described his experience of speaking was that
0:18:19 > 0:18:22he felt he could actually sort of see into the minds of his audience,
0:18:22 > 0:18:23that he could read them,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26he could understand what their thoughts and feelings were,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28and was then able to play back to them
0:18:28 > 0:18:30what they really wanted to hear.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34Towards the end of the speech,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38one of the most powerful sections deals with the opportunity
0:18:38 > 0:18:39for young people to get involved,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42to enlist and fight for King, Empire,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and the cause of civilisation.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48He says, "I envy you young people, your opportunity.
0:18:48 > 0:18:49"It's a great opportunity.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53"An opportunity that comes only once in many centuries
0:18:53 > 0:18:55"to the children of men.
0:18:55 > 0:18:56"For most generations,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59"sacrifice comes in drab and weariness of spirit.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02"It comes to you today, and it comes today to us all
0:19:02 > 0:19:04"in the form of the glow and the thrill
0:19:04 > 0:19:06"of a great movement for liberty.
0:19:06 > 0:19:12"It impels millions throughout Europe to the same noble end."
0:19:12 > 0:19:15APPLAUSE
0:19:19 > 0:19:21The speech did the job.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23It electrified the audience, the public,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25and even his cabinet colleagues.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28It was so popular that it was published as a pamphlet
0:19:28 > 0:19:30and it sold hundreds of thousands.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33But not for the first time, when it comes to politicians,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36David Lloyd George's real feelings
0:19:36 > 0:19:39didn't quite match his soaring oratory.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44At exactly the same time that he was down here in London
0:19:44 > 0:19:49eulogising a sacrifice of young men in the name of liberty,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52he was also writing to his wife, who was up in North Wales,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56about their sons, Gwilym and Richard.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00I've got the letter here. It makes interesting reading.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03He wrote, "They're pressing the Territorials to volunteer for war.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05"Gwilym mustn't do that yet.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08"I'm dead against carrying on a war of conquest to crush Germany
0:20:08 > 0:20:10"for the benefit of Russia.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13"I'm not going to sacrifice my nice boy for that purpose.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16"You must write, telling him he must, on no account,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18"be bullied into volunteering abroad."
0:20:19 > 0:20:23Well, that is straightforward hypocrisy -
0:20:23 > 0:20:25saying one thing in public,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28but a very different thing in private.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31I can understand why he didn't want his sons to go and fight in the war,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33but it's pretty rich coming from a man who is encouraging
0:20:33 > 0:20:35everyone else to send their sons into harm's way.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39Eventually, the two boys did go and fight on the Western Front,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42but I think that really shows Lloyd George to be
0:20:42 > 0:20:45the slippery customer he definitely was.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50I suppose he was a normal human being with frailties
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and, I think he was always, I suspect,
0:20:53 > 0:20:54something of a physical coward.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57But I think he didn't like the thought of death,
0:20:57 > 0:20:58he didn't like the thought of illness.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01Apparently, he was the most terrible hypochondriac if he got sick.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03Which is true, of course, of a lot of men,
0:21:03 > 0:21:04so maybe he wasn't unusual in that!
0:21:04 > 0:21:09But he also, I think, was probably afraid of pain and death.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11And he was very devoted to his children.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13So, no, it's not admirable for him to say,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15when other people's sons are going off to fight,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17"For God's sake, don't let our sons join up,"
0:21:17 > 0:21:20but it's a very human sort of thing to do.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Nothing demonstrates Lloyd George's dubious reputation more
0:21:25 > 0:21:27than his relationship with women.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30He married his first wife, Margaret, in 1888,
0:21:30 > 0:21:32when they were both in their early 20s.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35But in the years leading up to the First World War,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38he was cited in two divorce cases.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Not for nothing was he nicknamed The Goat.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45Lloyd George's private life has attracted almost as much attention
0:21:45 > 0:21:47as his political life.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51He was a serial womaniser.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53His wife, Margaret, chose to spend most of her time
0:21:53 > 0:21:54back in North Wales,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57so when he was alone in London, he carried on a series of affairs,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00sometimes with other politicians' wives.
0:22:00 > 0:22:01He became infamous -
0:22:01 > 0:22:06the marching song Lloyd George Knew My Father had a second verse -
0:22:06 > 0:22:08Lloyd George knew my mother.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11In 1911, though, he would meet a woman
0:22:11 > 0:22:15who became almost his alternative wife.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17He developed a lifelong attachment to her,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20and would eventually marry her after his wife, Margaret, died.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24By 1914, he basically had two wives.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28She was Frances Stevenson.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33When they met, she was 25 years old - half Lloyd George's age.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35She'd been at school with his eldest daughter
0:22:35 > 0:22:38and was now a tutor to his youngest, Megan.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Before long, Lloyd George asked her to become his private secretary.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44An unusual job for a woman.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49Frances is a very remarkable, feminist pioneer in her own right,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53at a time when there were no female senior civil servants in Whitehall,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57and nobody questioned that she was not up to the job
0:22:57 > 0:23:01or she was there for ornamental or decorative or sexual reasons.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04And she did a very efficient and very discreet job.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07And, as he had done years earlier with Margaret,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12he made it absolutely clear that his career was sacrosanct.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14He wasn't going to have any scandal, any divorce,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16any question of leaving his wife,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20but he made her the offer to become his mistress-come-secretary
0:23:20 > 0:23:24on, what she called, his terms, and she accepted those terms.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27It was a very explicit relationship
0:23:27 > 0:23:31and I think, actually, his wife, Margaret, understood it as well.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36I used to go and see him when I had an afternoon off.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39I very often went up to the House of Commons
0:23:39 > 0:23:41and I would get a ticket for the latest gallery.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Then I would go and see him in his room afterwards
0:23:46 > 0:23:47and have a cup of tea with him.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53And from that time on, there wasn't anybody else but LG.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01One of the reasons that no-one suspected the relationship, really,
0:24:01 > 0:24:05was that Frances was no-one's idea of a mistress.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08She did look very demure and proper,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13And the press, in those days, did not write about affairs
0:24:13 > 0:24:15unless they reached the divorce court.
0:24:15 > 0:24:16There was a genuine thing,
0:24:16 > 0:24:20scandals of this sort simply were not reported.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26If Lloyd George had certain vices, drink wasn't one of them.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28He'd campaigned for temperance,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and now he saw alcohol as a serious threat to the war effort.
0:24:31 > 0:24:36# ..is Lloyd George's beer. #
0:24:36 > 0:24:37Thank you very much.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39The single worst thing about being
0:24:39 > 0:24:42David Lloyd George's great-great-grandson
0:24:42 > 0:24:45was knowing that whenever me and my mates were thrown out of the pub
0:24:45 > 0:24:48at 11 o'clock every single night,
0:24:48 > 0:24:50it was my great-great-grandfather's fault!
0:24:50 > 0:24:53Lloyd George became convinced during the war
0:24:53 > 0:24:56that booze was a greater threat than the Kaiser.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And he did what he could to cut down the alcohol consumption
0:24:59 > 0:25:01of the British public.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04He was very concerned about days lost in munitions production
0:25:04 > 0:25:07because of hungover workers or people not turning up.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09As a result, he managed to bring in
0:25:09 > 0:25:12the strictest licensing laws in British history.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15He forced pubs to close at 9.30 at night,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19and the British government even watered down beer.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22This, as you can imagine, was wildly unpopular.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25There was a song, very current at the time,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29which went, "It's a pub-stitute, it's a substitute,
0:25:29 > 0:25:35"the worst thing that's happened in this war is Lloyd George's beer!"
0:25:35 > 0:25:39# But the worst thing that's ever happened in this war
0:25:39 > 0:25:44# Is Lloyd George's beer. #
0:25:49 > 0:25:51But drink was the least of their problems,
0:25:51 > 0:25:52the war was going badly,
0:25:52 > 0:25:54the British had been driven back
0:25:54 > 0:25:56through France and Belgium by the Germans,
0:25:56 > 0:26:02and only a last-gasp defence of Paris had saved the French capital.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06By Christmas 1914, it was becoming a stalemate,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08both sides had dug in.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Lloyd George visited British troops in France at the end of 1914,
0:26:18 > 0:26:20he was appalled by what he found.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22The British Army hadn't been expecting
0:26:22 > 0:26:25to fight large-scale European warfare in 1914,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28so some of its equipment was inappropriate,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30and it just didn't have enough stuff.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35The factories back in the UK were swamped, overwhelmed by the demand.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38That meant that, particularly, there wasn't enough guns
0:26:38 > 0:26:42or ammunition, and what there was was often defective -
0:26:42 > 0:26:44half the shells were failing to explode.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51Back in Britain, Lloyd George used his PR skills to highlight the issue
0:26:51 > 0:26:54and used it as an opportunity to criticise Kitchener and the army.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58With friends like the press baron Lord Northcliffe pumping out
0:26:58 > 0:27:02tub-thumping headlines, it was dubbed the Shell Crisis,
0:27:02 > 0:27:03and it was made very clear
0:27:03 > 0:27:06that Lloyd George was the man to solve it.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08On one occasion, rather cheekily,
0:27:08 > 0:27:10he brought a piece of a shell right in here to this chamber.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12He held it up and he said in a speech,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16"I do not know whether I'm in order, Mr Speaker, in showing this,
0:27:16 > 0:27:18"but it is one of the greatest difficulties of all
0:27:18 > 0:27:20"in turning out shells.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22"It is the fuse of a high explosive.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25"This is supposed to be simple,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29"but it takes 100 different gauges to turn it out."
0:27:29 > 0:27:31With that flourish,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34he finished off a piece of consummate parliamentary theatre.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38The Shell Crisis of 1915 is a real crisis
0:27:38 > 0:27:41and it's one that hits every belligerent state.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Russia starts running out of shells, the French run out of shells,
0:27:44 > 0:27:45nobody had anticipated
0:27:45 > 0:27:47that the First World War would last so much longer
0:27:47 > 0:27:51and that they would require such huge amounts of armaments.
0:27:52 > 0:27:53There was a real situation
0:27:53 > 0:27:56where one looks at some of the battles that are being waged
0:27:56 > 0:27:58in the spring of 1915 by both the French and the British,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00and the men do not have enough shells.
0:28:03 > 0:28:04There is a very real crisis there,
0:28:04 > 0:28:06and it is not a case that this was manufactured
0:28:06 > 0:28:08or leaked to the press artificially,
0:28:08 > 0:28:11it was leaked to the press because there was a sense of anger
0:28:11 > 0:28:14that the situation's got so bad, and that men are dying
0:28:14 > 0:28:17because, as it seemed, Britain hasn't prepared adequately.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21The furore in the press did the job.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24A new Ministry of Munitions was created
0:28:24 > 0:28:26with Lloyd George as the boss.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27Some office space was found
0:28:27 > 0:28:29in Whitehall Gardens, in Central London.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31When Lloyd George strode in,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34removal men were still emptying the place
0:28:34 > 0:28:36of the furniture of the previous occupants.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38Lloyd George was in his element -
0:28:38 > 0:28:42he had a blank sheet of paper, and sweeping powers.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45The first thing he did was get on the telephone
0:28:45 > 0:28:47to try and recruit captains of industry -
0:28:47 > 0:28:50men who had, as he put it, push and go.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53They may not have known anything about armaments production,
0:28:53 > 0:28:55but they knew how to get stuff done.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58When you are in a national crisis, you can't afford to say,
0:28:58 > 0:29:00"Oh, we must go through the proper channels."
0:29:00 > 0:29:02What you need to do is get the very best brains,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04the very best talents, the most energetic people in.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07And what Lloyd George did is he brought in businesspeople,
0:29:07 > 0:29:09he brought in scientists, he brought in advisers,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11he was very flexible in how he did it.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14And, of course, he did sometimes bypass the normal channels,
0:29:14 > 0:29:15but I think it was absolutely necessary.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18His realisation that there had to be
0:29:18 > 0:29:22some kind of fundamental shake-up was right.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25If you think that fighting World War I was a good idea,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28then, certainly, the qualities which Lloyd George brought
0:29:28 > 0:29:31in terms of his energy, in terms of his inventiveness,
0:29:31 > 0:29:33his innovative approach to government,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36was certainly very much what was needed.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39And it worked.
0:29:39 > 0:29:40By the end of the war,
0:29:40 > 0:29:44the Ministry of Munitions had a staff of 65,000 people,
0:29:44 > 0:29:48and controlled an army of 3 million workers.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54Many members of that huge workforce were women.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56Before the war, Lloyd George had been seen as
0:29:56 > 0:29:58an enemy of the Women's Suffrage Movement.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02In 1913, it even attempted to blow up his house in Surrey.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Now the suffragettes suspended their campaign
0:30:07 > 0:30:09and joined the war effort.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13If anything justifies Lloyd George's reputation
0:30:13 > 0:30:14as the man who won the war,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17it has to be the fact that he helped to put the British economy
0:30:17 > 0:30:19on a wartime footing.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22And around the country there is still a little bit of evidence
0:30:22 > 0:30:24of that enormous transformation.
0:30:24 > 0:30:29Take this place near Lloyd George's hometown in North Wales -
0:30:29 > 0:30:33it was, and still is, a locomotive workshop,
0:30:33 > 0:30:38but in 1916, it was repurposed to making shells.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Women were a crucial part of the war effort.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49And of course, what happened is men went off to fight,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51the jobs that they'd been doing had to be filled somehow
0:30:51 > 0:30:52and the women came in to fill them.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55And so the old arguments that women shouldn't be able to vote
0:30:55 > 0:30:57because they couldn't cope with difficult things
0:30:57 > 0:30:59and they couldn't drive things like tractors or railways
0:30:59 > 0:31:01or they couldn't make things, simply fell down.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04That is the key reason why women got the vote at the end of the war.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06Because it was seen that they had played a huge part in the war,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09you couldn't argue any more that they weren't capable
0:31:09 > 0:31:10of participating in society.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13And Lloyd George, I think, like a lot of people, changed his mind.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20Wow, this is great.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22Look at all this machinery. Oh, look up there.
0:31:22 > 0:31:23That's a shaft.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25That would have been connected to a giant steam engine out there,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29and belts would have powered all of the lathes in here.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32There were about 50 women working here, apparently,
0:31:32 > 0:31:34recruited from local farms and homes.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36They made the shells,
0:31:36 > 0:31:38and then those shells were sent off elsewhere
0:31:38 > 0:31:39to be filled with explosives,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42also by female munitions workers.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46This relatively small space, I think,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49gives you a sense of the scale of what Lloyd George achieved.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Imagine timesing this workshop by about 20,000
0:31:53 > 0:31:57and you get an idea of how he transformed Britain
0:31:57 > 0:32:01into a society and an economy able to wage total war.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15But at exactly the same time as Lloyd George was solving
0:32:15 > 0:32:17the munitions problem,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20in secret he was facing a crisis of his own
0:32:20 > 0:32:23involving his mistress, Frances Stevenson.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25What documents have you got for me here?
0:32:25 > 0:32:29This affair is incredibly well documented,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32because Frances, very efficiently, kept a diary
0:32:32 > 0:32:35from quite early in the relationship.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37She's still living at home with her parents,
0:32:37 > 0:32:41who disapprove, understandably, when they realise what is happening.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44So she is worried, in this diary extract here,
0:32:44 > 0:32:46about upsetting her parents.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49"The long and the short of it is, as much as I love Mamma and Dada,
0:32:49 > 0:32:51"I hate to cause them pain.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55"But the idea of our love child will have to go for the time being."
0:32:55 > 0:32:56And this is important,
0:32:56 > 0:33:01because in early 1915, she discovered that she was pregnant.
0:33:01 > 0:33:02Really? I didn't know that.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05And so, Lloyd George, in the crisis of the war,
0:33:05 > 0:33:10was possibly distracted by the fact that Frances was pregnant.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12There was clearly... She accepted, he accepted.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15She says, "The idea of our love child will have to go
0:33:15 > 0:33:16"for the time being."
0:33:16 > 0:33:17So she had an abortion.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20- This was her pregnant...- This was her pregnancy in early 1915.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23..coming to terms with the fact she's going to have an abortion
0:33:23 > 0:33:24- for his career.- Yes, for his career.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27And, she writes here, "I do not think I can ever repay him
0:33:27 > 0:33:30"for his goodness to me the last fortnight or three weeks.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33"He has been husband, lover and mother to me.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35"I never knew a man could be so womanly and tender.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38"He has watched and waited on me devotedly
0:33:38 > 0:33:42"until I cursed myself for being ill and causing him all this worry.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45"There was no little thing that he did not think of for my comfort.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47"No tenderness that he did not lavish on me.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50"I have, indeed, known the full extent of his love."
0:33:50 > 0:33:53So at this moment during the war,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55when he had all these other things to think of,
0:33:55 > 0:34:01he was still taking enormous care of Frances
0:34:01 > 0:34:03and making sure she was looked after and recovered.
0:34:03 > 0:34:04I...
0:34:04 > 0:34:07- I'd never heard that story. That's incredible.- Yeah.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09What other surprises and secrets have you got for me here?
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Well, there's a nice little token of their love here,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15which is this little pocketbook that Lloyd George had made.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19So that he could carry Frances' picture around with him.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21Looking very demure and proper.
0:34:21 > 0:34:22Who is this letter from over here?
0:34:22 > 0:34:24This is Lloyd George to Frances.
0:34:24 > 0:34:25- Ah, so that's his handwriting? - Yes, yes.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29He wrote in a stubby pencil, and it's very difficult to read,
0:34:29 > 0:34:31but this is in 1915.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36"Now, Pussy, I have made up my mind to disappoint myself, and you.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40"I have two days of most important and trying work in front of me.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42"Conferences and decisions
0:34:42 > 0:34:45"upon which the success of the department depends,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49"and I must reserve all my strength for them.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54"Meanwhile, help me to restrain myself,
0:34:54 > 0:35:00"as I am lost for my passion for you in a consuming flame,
0:35:00 > 0:35:05"and it burns up all wisdom and prudence and judgment in my soul.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07"Help me, cariad bach.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09"You are everything to me now.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13"My failure or success will depend entirely on you,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16"you possess my soul entirely.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18"Your own D, forever."
0:35:19 > 0:35:21- You know, it's quite passionate stuff.- That is passionate stuff.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24He was as persuasive in his writing as he was in his oratory.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26Oh, he...
0:35:26 > 0:35:28- JOHN LAUGHS - He was irresistible, I think.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31That was his... You know, they said he could charm the birds off a tree,
0:35:31 > 0:35:33and he was a very powerful personality.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37Well, that was a strange experience.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Because on one level, as a family member,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42it's pretty distressing reading about
0:35:42 > 0:35:44your great-great-grandfather's love affairs
0:35:44 > 0:35:48and his aborted love child,
0:35:48 > 0:35:55and an incredible self-obsession and ambition
0:35:55 > 0:36:00that seemed to have crowded out the feelings of anybody else.
0:36:00 > 0:36:01He may have been a great man,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05but he's one who is clearly not that compassionate.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08So on another level, you do find yourself attracted to him
0:36:08 > 0:36:10as a lover, as a human,
0:36:10 > 0:36:13and you almost feel yourself wishing him all the best
0:36:13 > 0:36:16in that relationship, cos he clearly loved her very much.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20He clearly felt, at that time of his life, he couldn't live without her.
0:36:20 > 0:36:21I feel a bit conflicted.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27There was also conflict in the government.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30After the Shell Crisis, and the failure of the Gallipoli landings,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33Asquith's Liberals had been forced into coalition
0:36:33 > 0:36:35with the Conservatives.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37But by late 1916,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40all sides were losing patience with the leadership of the government -
0:36:40 > 0:36:42a change had to come.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47The Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, well, he wasn't up to the job.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50He was an ageing, distracted Edwardian gentleman.
0:36:50 > 0:36:56He was not the man to prosecute total war in the industrial age.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58He refused to get out of bed before 8.30 in the mornings,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00his cabinets had too many people in them,
0:37:00 > 0:37:02no minutes were taken,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05and decisions rarely got made.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08When his son was killed on the Western Front
0:37:08 > 0:37:10in September 1916,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13any enthusiasm he had for the job seemed to drain away.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15It was widely regarded
0:37:15 > 0:37:18that Lloyd George should be the man to take over.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23The characteristic phrase
0:37:23 > 0:37:27that was always associated with Asquith was "wait and see",
0:37:27 > 0:37:32because what he was very good at was manipulating party divisions,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35using the kind of policy of delay
0:37:35 > 0:37:37in order to wait and see what happened.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Now, fine when you're talking about an issue of domestic politics,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42but when you're fighting the greatest war
0:37:42 > 0:37:44that history has ever seen,
0:37:44 > 0:37:46then it becomes much more problematic.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Lloyd George absolutely jumps on the bandwagon here.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51He is an incredibly ambitious man.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53This was someone who said he will sacrifice everything,
0:37:53 > 0:37:54even love, to get to the top.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Although, he will not sacrifice honesty, he claims.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00This is someone who was absolutely determined to get the top job,
0:38:00 > 0:38:02and who sees Asquith, very early on,
0:38:02 > 0:38:04as someone who's potentially a lame duck.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06Had Lloyd George not taken over in 1916,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09nobody can be sure how the war would have gone.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11Asquith was out of his depth. He was past it.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13He was always rather a ditherer,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16but he was dithering particularly strongly in 1916.
0:38:16 > 0:38:17And I've no doubt at all
0:38:17 > 0:38:19that Lloyd George wanted to do the right thing for Britain.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21Initially, he was prepared to take over
0:38:21 > 0:38:23without the title of Prime Minister.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25He offered Asquith the right to remain titular Prime Minister
0:38:25 > 0:38:26while he ran the war.
0:38:26 > 0:38:30Lloyd George's own interest was running the war, winning the war.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36'Asquith tried to cling on to power in the coalition,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40'but without the support of the Conservatives, he was doomed.'
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Thank you.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45'On the 7th of December 1916,
0:38:45 > 0:38:49'David Lloyd George became Prime Minister.'
0:38:52 > 0:38:54If you love history, it doesn't get better than this.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56This is the staircase in 10 Downing Street.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59The men and women who have made the modern world
0:38:59 > 0:39:01walked up and down these stairs for generations.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03And on the walls,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05pictures of all the former prime ministers.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08You've got Wellington down there, there's Palmerston there, Gladstone,
0:39:08 > 0:39:10the titanic figures of the 19th century.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12Moving into the 20th century here.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15And it's a special moment for me because right here
0:39:15 > 0:39:18is my great-great-grandfather, David Lloyd George.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25Even though I'm aware of his failings, and try and be critical,
0:39:25 > 0:39:27it's always a very special moment passing this photograph for me,
0:39:27 > 0:39:32because, unlike all the previous holders of this office,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35he made it through talent alone.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37He wasn't born into an aristocratic family,
0:39:37 > 0:39:40he didn't have a huge amount of money or connections.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44And therefore, I can't help looking at this picture without...
0:39:44 > 0:39:47a twinge of excitement and pride.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00As soon as Lloyd George was installed here at Number Ten,
0:40:00 > 0:40:02he made a key decision.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04It seems obvious to us now, but it was controversial at the time.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07He formed a team of just five people -
0:40:07 > 0:40:08his war cabinet.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11They met every day, their meetings were minuted,
0:40:11 > 0:40:13decisions were made.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16Now, that was something that's been emulated by war leaders ever since -
0:40:16 > 0:40:20Churchill in the Second World War, Thatcher and the Falklands -
0:40:20 > 0:40:21but at the time,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24some people thought he was gathering too much power to himself,
0:40:24 > 0:40:26he was looking too presidential.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29He is projecting a very dynamic image.
0:40:29 > 0:40:30He's trying very much to present himself as
0:40:30 > 0:40:32somebody who is everywhere all at once,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34who's involved in directing all kinds of things.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36He admired Napoleon Bonaparte,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39who worked famously long hours and was very bureaucratic.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41He often talks about appealing to the people during the war,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44going over the heads of government, going over the heads of parliament,
0:40:44 > 0:40:46to go and talk directly to the people.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48He's very much aware that he needs to be seen.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50And he has a great relationship with the media.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52He's also very good friends with big business.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54So he's very much a radical moderniser,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56and he's someone who's, I think, dynamic,
0:40:56 > 0:41:00and trying to give that impression of being everywhere at once.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05In power, Lloyd George's energy and sense of improvisation
0:41:05 > 0:41:08infused the government with a sense of urgency.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Right across London, temporary buildings were thrown up
0:41:11 > 0:41:15to house the new bureaucrats needed to run the rejuvenated war effort.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17Downing Street was no exception.
0:41:17 > 0:41:18I'm here in the garden,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21and under Lloyd George, this became known as the Garden Suburb.
0:41:21 > 0:41:22Huts were built here
0:41:22 > 0:41:25and in those huts would have been special advisers,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29all overseen by someone today we would refer to as a tsar -
0:41:29 > 0:41:31someone brought in from the outside world,
0:41:31 > 0:41:34from industry, to run a government department.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38This was Lloyd George the outsider shaking up how things were done.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Another thing that Lloyd George did was reach out to the Empire,
0:41:46 > 0:41:49because the Empire, it's often forgotten, was enormously important
0:41:49 > 0:41:51in the British war effort in the First World War.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53Without the soldiers coming from India,
0:41:53 > 0:41:54a million soldiers from India,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57without the soldiers coming from Canada, Australia,
0:41:57 > 0:41:59New Zealand, South Africa,
0:41:59 > 0:42:01from all over the world, from Newfoundland,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03the British would not have been able to keep the armies
0:42:03 > 0:42:04they kept on the field,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07and without the resources and money coming from the Empire.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09And the Empire was beginning to feel really neglected.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11It was one of the big complaints that they had against Asquith,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14that he just wasn't consulting them, he was taking them for granted.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17And Lloyd George said, almost the moment he became Prime Minister,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19I'm going to go and talk to all the Empire leaders.
0:42:19 > 0:42:20And I think this was important.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23I think he gave a sense that we're all in this together.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33Lloyd George's biggest legacy, in general,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36is the impact upon the British state.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39What he does is, actually, changes the machinery of government
0:42:39 > 0:42:41and reforms it
0:42:41 > 0:42:44in such a way as to make sure that the instructions
0:42:44 > 0:42:47that are going down from the top are actually getting implemented.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51But when it came to actual military matters,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53he was not particularly well-informed,
0:42:53 > 0:42:55and essentially didn't really have a strategy
0:42:55 > 0:42:57for what was going to be done to replace
0:42:57 > 0:43:00what he thought was the failed strategy of the generals.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08By this stage of the war,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Lloyd George had hit the pinnacle of his power.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15He was untouchable in the political sphere.
0:43:15 > 0:43:20But his relationship with the military wasn't quite as simple.
0:43:20 > 0:43:22He was becoming increasingly frustrated
0:43:22 > 0:43:24by the lack of progress on the Western Front,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27and the terrible casualties that were building up.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30Now, he had been able to wrangle the Navy,
0:43:30 > 0:43:32but with the army, it was a different matter.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36There the unstoppable force of David Lloyd George
0:43:36 > 0:43:40hit the immovable object of Sir Douglas Haig.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Lloyd George's relationship with the generals
0:43:43 > 0:43:45during the First World War has come under immense scrutiny,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47and there's a long-running historical debate about it.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49But what seems very clear is that a bad relationship
0:43:49 > 0:43:52between your prime minister and your commander-in-chief,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54while your state is engaged in total war,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56is a bad situation for everybody.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59I think Lloyd George is correct that Haig has many flaws
0:43:59 > 0:44:02and actually, possibly, isn't the best commander-in-chief
0:44:02 > 0:44:03for the British war effort.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07Ultimately, Lloyd George is someone who, I think, sees through Haig.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09He has this famous quote where he says,
0:44:09 > 0:44:12"Haig was brilliant to the top of his boots,"
0:44:12 > 0:44:15but Lloyd George is scared to go very public, I think,
0:44:15 > 0:44:17about his dislike of Haig
0:44:17 > 0:44:18and his belief that Haig isn't winning the war.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20Instead he intrigues against him,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22and it's something that, really, the generals don't like,
0:44:22 > 0:44:24and there's a sense of Lloyd George not being trustworthy.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27And they don't like that lack of straight talking.
0:44:27 > 0:44:28I think, with the military,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31you always get a sort of very strong sense
0:44:31 > 0:44:33of esprit de corps, which is absolutely understandable.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35They're doing something that others don't have to do.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37It's a bit like the police and firemen as well.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40They're risking their lives, they're dealing with issues
0:44:40 > 0:44:42that most of us don't ever have to deal with.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45And I think one of their strengths is they stick by each other,
0:44:45 > 0:44:46but, of course, it's also a weakness
0:44:46 > 0:44:48when it comes to dealing with civilian society,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50because they don't like to be told what to do
0:44:50 > 0:44:51and they don't like to be questioned.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53And I suspect in the case of Lloyd George,
0:44:53 > 0:44:54they would like it even less.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56He couldn't sack Haig
0:44:56 > 0:44:58because the conditions of the Tories joining the coalition
0:44:58 > 0:45:01was that Haig should remain commander-in-chief
0:45:01 > 0:45:03for the duration of the war.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05And Lloyd George knew the coalition would collapse
0:45:05 > 0:45:06if he tried to get rid of Haig.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Haig was a very established figure, a friend at court.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10He couldn't do anything about replacing him,
0:45:10 > 0:45:12so he tried to get round him in various ways.
0:45:12 > 0:45:13They hated each other,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15but Lloyd George couldn't get rid of him.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17Do you think some members of the establishment,
0:45:17 > 0:45:19and including the King himself,
0:45:19 > 0:45:20did they think that Lloyd George was
0:45:20 > 0:45:22potentially dangerous, revolutionary?
0:45:22 > 0:45:26I think they thought Lloyd George was a danger to the establishment,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29to the settled order, the established order of things.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31They didn't think he was likely to be part of a putsch,
0:45:31 > 0:45:32or anything as extreme as that,
0:45:32 > 0:45:35but they thought he was a man they had to keep an eye on.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38In wartime, there's always a risk for the royal family
0:45:38 > 0:45:41that a particular political leader, or military figure,
0:45:41 > 0:45:43might become more popular than the monarch himself.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46There's a fear that Lloyd George is accruing too much power to himself,
0:45:46 > 0:45:49and that perhaps he might threaten British democracy
0:45:49 > 0:45:50and the constitutional order.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53So, in many ways, a dislike for him.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56However, some of this is also, I think, partially class-based,
0:45:56 > 0:45:58and also the fact that he's Welsh,
0:45:58 > 0:46:00and he's coming from a Welsh nationalist background as well.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04So there are many reasons why Lloyd George doesn't quite fit in.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07In contrast, Haig is incredibly respectful of the monarch,
0:46:07 > 0:46:09his wife is a lady-in-waiting,
0:46:09 > 0:46:10he has the ear of the King,
0:46:10 > 0:46:12and is in constant correspondence with him.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15So there's quite a different approach here.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20I suppose I know most about
0:46:20 > 0:46:24Lloyd George's military, diplomatic and strategic role
0:46:24 > 0:46:26during and after the war,
0:46:26 > 0:46:31so it was really interesting to hear about Lloyd George's successes
0:46:31 > 0:46:33on the home front as a domestic politician.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36It did sound like he really did galvanise the nation
0:46:36 > 0:46:37to win World War I.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40So much so that the King was jealous that he might be setting himself up
0:46:40 > 0:46:42as a dictator - fascinating.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49It's not surprising that the King began to feel a little threatened
0:46:49 > 0:46:52by Lloyd George's popularity.
0:46:52 > 0:46:53His image was everywhere -
0:46:53 > 0:46:56he was on the front page of newspapers and magazines,
0:46:56 > 0:46:57he was always in the newsreels.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12This is Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey.
0:47:12 > 0:47:13He loved playing golf here.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15He was always being photographed playing golf.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17It was very near his country house,
0:47:17 > 0:47:21and he played here alongside leading figures
0:47:21 > 0:47:22of the British establishment -
0:47:22 > 0:47:27newspaper editors, aristocrats, and high-ranking politicians.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33Lloyd George was always an intensely image-conscious politician
0:47:33 > 0:47:37and by being photographed here playing golf in Surrey,
0:47:37 > 0:47:39I believe he was saying to the British people
0:47:39 > 0:47:41that all was essentially well with their world,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44and even during the darkest days of the war,
0:47:44 > 0:47:48he had supreme confidence that victory would be theirs.
0:47:52 > 0:47:53Oh!
0:47:54 > 0:47:58There's some quality in some leaders which speaks to people,
0:47:58 > 0:47:59and it's very hard to define,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02and I don't think it can be learned or can be taught,
0:48:02 > 0:48:04but I think Lloyd George had something of that.
0:48:04 > 0:48:05I mean, what's really interesting,
0:48:05 > 0:48:07if you look at the cartoons of the time,
0:48:07 > 0:48:08they show this little bouncy Lloyd George,
0:48:08 > 0:48:11and I think people felt, "Here's someone in charge.
0:48:11 > 0:48:12"Thank goodness, he knows what he's doing.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14"He's going to take us in the right direction."
0:48:18 > 0:48:20But in early 1917,
0:48:20 > 0:48:24Britain needed all of Lloyd George's energy and determination.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31The British Isles are surrounded by the sea,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34and Britain was dependent on maritime trade
0:48:34 > 0:48:38for its wealth, its food and its war supplies.
0:48:38 > 0:48:39The Germans knew this,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43and in 1917 they decided to get their U-boats to sink
0:48:43 > 0:48:47every single ship they could find in British waters.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51The Germans thought that if they could sink 600,000 tonnes
0:48:51 > 0:48:52of shipping a month,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55the British would be forced to sue for peace.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58Now, in April 1917, they hit that target,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02and there were food and fuel shortages in the UK.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06But the following month Lloyd George struck back
0:49:06 > 0:49:08with a system that would help stop the rot.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17The idea of convoy was actually nothing new.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19Basically, you gather lots of ships together,
0:49:19 > 0:49:20they travel as a pack,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23and you give them a naval escort to protect them.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25But the Admiralty didn't really like the idea,
0:49:25 > 0:49:27because they thought it was providing the Germans
0:49:27 > 0:49:28with, actually, a bigger target.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30And also, they didn't trust
0:49:30 > 0:49:33the merchant captains would be able to stay on station.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35But Lloyd George championed it.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38He believed that travelling together would be strength in numbers,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41and that naval escort would help to make a difference.
0:49:44 > 0:49:45And it worked.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Of the nearly 9,000 ships that travelled in convoy,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52only 27 were lost through the rest of the war.
0:49:52 > 0:49:53And in that time,
0:49:53 > 0:49:57300 ships travelling by themselves were sunk by U-boats.
0:49:57 > 0:49:58For the rest of the war,
0:49:58 > 0:50:02the German fleet was unable to seriously threaten
0:50:02 > 0:50:03Britain's lifeline.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08But if the war at sea was won,
0:50:08 > 0:50:11on the Western Front, things were still desperate.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16In spring 1918, the Germans broke through
0:50:16 > 0:50:19and almost reached Paris.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22But this is where Lloyd George's war machine took over.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24Helped by vast numbers of guns,
0:50:24 > 0:50:26huge amounts of ammunition,
0:50:26 > 0:50:28and tens of thousands of fresh American troops,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32the Allies halted the German advance and pushed them back.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38At 11am, on the 11th of November 1918,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41the guns on the Western Front fell silent
0:50:41 > 0:50:44as the Armistice came into effect.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Lloyd George addressed the nation.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56He said, "Thus, at 11 o'clock this morning,
0:50:56 > 0:50:58"came to an end the cruellest, and most terrible war
0:50:58 > 0:51:01"that has ever scourged mankind.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06"I hope we may say that, thus, this fateful morning
0:51:06 > 0:51:09"came an end to all wars."
0:51:09 > 0:51:11Well, sadly, we know that wasn't to be.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15But Lloyd George was wildly popular, he was hailed as a hero.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19His friend, the Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law, said
0:51:19 > 0:51:22that if he wished, he could be Prime Minister for life.
0:51:22 > 0:51:28Well, we know now that that too would not come to pass.
0:51:36 > 0:51:37Here's Lloyd George's portrait
0:51:37 > 0:51:40in one of the corridors in the Palace of Westminster.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44Hanging alongside some of the most celebrated and famous statesmen
0:51:44 > 0:51:46of British history.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50In 1918, Lloyd George reached rock-star levels
0:51:50 > 0:51:52of fame and adulation.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55And it seems to me that compared to that high,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57he's now faded into obscurity.
0:52:03 > 0:52:08Back then, he was a powerful presence on the world stage.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11Re-elected in 1918 by a landslide
0:52:11 > 0:52:13at the head of a Conservative-dominated coalition,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16he was a key mover at the Paris Peace Conference.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20This is when Lloyd George earned the famous title
0:52:20 > 0:52:22"the man who won the war",
0:52:22 > 0:52:24but did he lose the peace?
0:52:24 > 0:52:27For the first half of 1919, Lloyd George was here in Paris,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30negotiating what would become the Treaty of Versailles.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33Dealing with the post-war German settlement,
0:52:33 > 0:52:34thinking about things, for example,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37like how much the defeated Germans would have to pay in reparations.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41The question is, how successful was he?
0:52:41 > 0:52:44I think Lloyd George did play an important role.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46He believed very strongly in the British Empire,
0:52:46 > 0:52:47and he believed strongly in promoting
0:52:47 > 0:52:49the power and influence of the British Empire.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51But he was pragmatic.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53And he knew that a continent which had
0:52:53 > 0:52:56a disaffected, perhaps revolutionary Germany at its heart,
0:52:56 > 0:52:57would not be a happy place.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00He also knew that Britain's prosperity, in the end,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03depended on trade, and one of its great trading partners
0:53:03 > 0:53:05before the First World War was Germany.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09So you have a peace settlement which, I think, wasn't that bad,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11but the German public thought it was deeply unfair,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14and so did the German elites, pretty much right across the board.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16And so the treaty was never accepted,
0:53:16 > 0:53:17it was always seen as unfair,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21and that was going to be, of course, an absolutely poisonous issue
0:53:21 > 0:53:22in between the wars,
0:53:22 > 0:53:24and one of the things that Hitler used to get himself into power.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27There are issues in Lloyd George's character
0:53:27 > 0:53:32that I think we do see recurring in leaders across the 20th century
0:53:32 > 0:53:34in terms of overconfidence.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37And when you look at Lloyd George in the post-war moment,
0:53:37 > 0:53:39he is a very good diplomat,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42but the skills that you have as a wartime leader
0:53:42 > 0:53:45are not the skills you need for, necessarily, making the best peace.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47And actually, he continues to play the war leader
0:53:47 > 0:53:48right into the post-war period,
0:53:48 > 0:53:50and it's an absolutely fatal mistake.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53Here in Versailles, Lloyd George dominated the international scene,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56one of the most powerful men in the world,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59literally redrawing the map of the world.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Back home, things weren't going so well.
0:54:02 > 0:54:04As we know from recent history,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08a coalition between the Liberals and the Conservatives...
0:54:08 > 0:54:09was always going to end in tears.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14One of the problems with the First World War
0:54:14 > 0:54:15is that it was so massive, and so costly,
0:54:15 > 0:54:18that when it ended, people thought, "The world's got to be better now."
0:54:18 > 0:54:20And of course, what happened after the war,
0:54:20 > 0:54:21there was almost immediate slump
0:54:21 > 0:54:23and a lot of people were thrown out of work,
0:54:23 > 0:54:25and the world certainly didn't look that better.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27And I think, what a lot of people said in Britain was,
0:54:27 > 0:54:29"Where was all this we were promised?"
0:54:29 > 0:54:33And I think Lloyd George had to deal with the disappointments.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35There was a burden of expectations
0:54:35 > 0:54:39which was way beyond what anyone, or any institution
0:54:39 > 0:54:41or any country could satisfy.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43And so I think there was widespread disillusionment.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47His image, particularly in the early 1920s,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50as Prime Minister is somebody who likes to swan around the world,
0:54:50 > 0:54:52spending a lot of time in the sunshine.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55More congenial to talk to your fellow world leaders
0:54:55 > 0:54:59than to deal with the nitty-gritty retailer of domestic politics.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03At one of these official visits is an amazing glimpse, on film,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06of Lloyd George's love triangle.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Here, caught for a second on the right, is Frances Stevenson.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13Then walking into shot, Lloyd George's wife, Margaret.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15This all remained secret,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19what did become public was a cash for honours scandal
0:55:19 > 0:55:22which dwarfs any more recent examples.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25There was a lot of personal corruption about him.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29He once sold shares in a South American gold mine,
0:55:29 > 0:55:31knowing there wasn't a gold mine, there wasn't any gold.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33He was personally, undoubtedly corrupt,
0:55:33 > 0:55:34there's no question about that.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36Sold peerages in a way they've never been sold before,
0:55:36 > 0:55:38apart from the reign of Henry VIII.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41But it's not surprising that Lloyd George had double standards,
0:55:41 > 0:55:42cos he did.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45One thing which the establishment did resent,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48and was a contribution to him being forced out of Downing Street,
0:55:48 > 0:55:54was his blatant way in which Lloyd George went about it,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57and also, the fact that he started selling honours to people
0:55:57 > 0:55:58who the Conservatives thought
0:55:58 > 0:56:00they ought to have been selling honours to.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03You know, first of all, what he was doing wasn't actually illegal.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05It was subsequently made illegal.
0:56:05 > 0:56:06And secondly,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10this was not something that he was doing for his own personal benefit.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13He wasn't spending the money on luxury houses for himself,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16he was spending it on building up a political fund,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19because he knew that he was politically vulnerable.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23He only had a small number of MPs in the House of Commons.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25So, what he was doing was flogging off knighthoods
0:56:25 > 0:56:29in order to fund his future political strategy.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32The honours scandal enraged the Conservative Party,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36and he was finally kicked out of office in 1922.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38He hoped to return to power, but he never did,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41remaining in the political wilderness for about 20 years
0:56:41 > 0:56:44until his death in 1945.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46He'd achieved a huge amount,
0:56:46 > 0:56:48both as a reforming chancellor,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50and as a wartime leader,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53and yet, today he's not really remembered.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56Certainly not on the same plain as someone like Winston Churchill.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59The establishment never embraced Lloyd George,
0:56:59 > 0:57:01and Lloyd George never embraced the establishment.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04He took their money, he slept with their wives,
0:57:04 > 0:57:05he used them to come to power,
0:57:05 > 0:57:07but he never felt a member of the establishment,
0:57:07 > 0:57:09and they never embraced him and never wanted him.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11And yet the lesson of British history -
0:57:11 > 0:57:13if you look at William Pitt the Elder, Churchill -
0:57:13 > 0:57:15win the war, and then don't stick around
0:57:15 > 0:57:16- to try and sort the peace out. - Absolutely.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20Trying to sort the peace out undermines your reputation forever.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24- MARGARET MACMILLAN:- Yes, he did make mistakes,
0:57:24 > 0:57:26and I'm certainly not going to defend him for those.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29And there are bits in his later career which are not edifying
0:57:29 > 0:57:30and we tend to remember those.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33He went off to see Hitler, his wife refused to go with him.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36She said, "I'm not going anywhere near that man, you're mad to go."
0:57:36 > 0:57:38And sadly, he didn't listen to her.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42And I think he probably was, in 1939, he was an old man,
0:57:42 > 0:57:43he was getting sick,
0:57:43 > 0:57:45he was going to die in the course of the war,
0:57:45 > 0:57:47and I think he probably was on the side of those
0:57:47 > 0:57:48who didn't want to go to war,
0:57:48 > 0:57:50who didn't want to stand up to Hitler.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52Does that make him a wicked man?
0:57:52 > 0:57:54No, I think it just, again, makes him very human.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04Making this programme and meeting the historians has convinced me
0:58:04 > 0:58:08that David Lloyd George did make a substantial contribution
0:58:08 > 0:58:10to Allied victory in the First World War.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12But he had terrible shortcomings -
0:58:12 > 0:58:14he was deceitful, he was corrupt.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17And all that means he's not a classic hero,
0:58:17 > 0:58:21but one-dimensional heroes belong in mythology, not in history.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23And I think, maybe, my great-great-grandfather,
0:58:23 > 0:58:26like all the powerful men and women that ruled in the past,
0:58:26 > 0:58:30perhaps like all of us, was capable of greatness,
0:58:30 > 0:58:32but also of failure.