Helen Bonham Carter is the first of the famous faces discovering the Second World War as their grandparents lived it in C4’s My Grandparents’ War
Helena Bonham Carter has long been intrigued by family tales of her maternal grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejón, saving refugees from the Nazis during World War Two. Now, in the first of C4’s fascinating and moving series, My Grandparents’ War, which sees famous faces look into relatives’ wartime exploits, she gets the chance to find out more about Eduardo’s heroism.
She also explores the life of her equally plucky paternal grandmother, Lady Violet Bonham Carter, who helped Jewish asylum seekers and carried out sterling work as an air raid warden while at the same time tragedy struck her own family.
Sir Mark Rylance, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Carey Mulligan will examine their wartime connections later in the series.
‘They weren’t conventional war heroes, they didn’t fight in any battles or win medals, but I wanted to discover what they did,’ says Helena, 53, who’s currently playing Princess Margaret in series three of Netflix’s hit royal drama The Crown.
‘I am so proud that in the face of strong opposition they stood up for what they believed in.
’The two sides of my family aren’t that different in their beliefs, their liberalism and their compassion.’
A deeply personal look at the war that scarred the world.
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TV Times rating: *****
