"Brendan Bracken – Churchill’s Secret Son..?”

A man unique in 20th Century politics, a fantasist and compulsive liar. The father of modern financial journalism, creator of the modern “Financial Times”. Was Brendan Bracken really Winston Churchill’s illegitimate son? The family grew up supposing that Brendan was Winston Churchill’s child, and Randolph Churchill (Winston’s son) referred to “my brother – the bastard” when talking about Brendan Bracken. Who was right? What was the truth ?

Brendan Bracken was the man, without whom, Winston Churchill would not have been Prime Minister in 1940. The saviour of the BBC’s independence, satirised as Rex Mottram in “Brideshead Revisited”, and was the original Big Brother in Orwell’s “1984”; yet Brendan Bracken hid himself from the pages of history. We reveal his story, his secrets and scandals, for the first time on Television.

This Documentary traces the life of Brendan Bracken from his Irish Republican roots in Fenian Central Ireland in 1901, through his school days in 3 countries, his rise to business and political power, his friendship and power broking with Winston Churchill over 30 years, finally his elevation to the peerage as Lord Bracken. We reveal his life, and loves, his early death in 1958 aged 57, after which, by his own command, all his papers were destroyed.

Filmed in magnificent High Definition, this 60 minute documentary features the Presenter – Adrian Bracken, a distant relative – as he retraces Bracken’s steps, filming in the places where the story unfolds, meeting and interviewing people who either knew Bracken or whose lives were touched by him, including Charles Edward Lysaght (Bracken's Biographer) , Eminent Journalist Lord William Rees-Mogg, the late Michael Thornely, former Headmaster of Sedbergh School in Cumbria, Respected Historians- Lord Asa Briggs (Broadcasting) and David Kynaston (Journalism) and Brian Caplen - Editor of "The Banker".

Archive footage, photographs, location filming including: London- (10 Downing Street & The Cabinet War Rooms amongst them) Cumbria, Cambridge, Chartwell, Templemore (Ireland) Limerick, Dublin, and Spain together with extensive reconstructions of major scenes in Bracken’s life, make this a must-see fascinating documentary telling a unique story, never before told on Television!

If Brendan Bracken’s story were fiction it would be more believable!

A co-production between Marbella Productions and Irish National broadcaster RTE.

The documentary is now in the final stages of post production, and will be completed in May 2010, and avalable for sale in June 2010. Adrian Bracken was at History Makers 2010 in New York in January, and will be showing the programme trailer and clips at MIP Doc 10-11 April in Cannes and MIPTV 12 -17 April also in Cannes.