Tom and Clem

Synopsis

A newly elected, pragmatic Labour Prime Minister must unite the party behind his vision of socialism and resolve the European question.

It's July 1945 and Clement Atlee arrives in a defeated Germany for the Potsdam conference with Stalin and Truman, facing the unenviable task of succeeding Churchill.

But first he encounters his most flamboyant new MP, Tom Driberg, a radical journalist and bon viveur.

Can there be a true meeting of the minds with Tom distracted by the attraction of a handsome young Russian soldier and Clem occupied by the outbreak of the Cold War and the novels of Dorothy L. Sayers

Stephen Churchett's play explores the nature of personal and political compromise, and the conflict between liberty of conscience and totalitarianism, against a backdrop of events which were to shape a country and continent in the second half of the twentieth century.