Vicky McClure grew up knowing hardly anything about the role her paternal grandfather, Ralph McClure, played in World War Two since, like many veterans, he never spoke of his experiences during the conflict.
"I’d seen pictures around the house where he’d got his uniform on, but I thought nothing of it as a kid," says Vicky star of hit thrillers Line of Duty and Trigger Point.
Now, in the new one-off ITV1 documentary Vicky McClure: My Grandad’s War, cameras follow the BAFTA-winning actor as she traces 97-year-old Royal Navy hero Ralph’s extraordinary story, taking him on an emotional trip back to the Normandy beaches, where he was involved in the D-Day landings that turned the tide of the war in the Allies’ favour.
Here’s what the devoted duo, who clearly love spending time together, unearthed on their cross-Channel trip down Ralph’s maritime memory lane…
Vicky McClure: My Grandad's War release date
Vicky McClure: My Grandad's War will be shown on ITV1 on Monday, June 5, 2023, at 9 pm. It will also be available on ITVX.
What will Vicky McClure: My Grandad's War cover?
The one-off documentary will see Vicky and Ralph embark on a trip together that neither of them will ever forget, covering all the most momentous moments of World War Two... "There’s nobody able to tell me exactly what happened better than somebody that was there," says Vicky, who also embarked on a deeply personal journey in BBC One’s documentary series Our Dementia Choir, inspired by how music helped her late maternal grandmother, Iris, during her battle with the disease. "And to hear it from my grandad, it means an awful lot to me."
Vicky McClure: My Grandad's War interview
Carving a career
Gifted footballer Ralph left school in Nottingham aged 14, and was offered a contract with Leeds United FC, but took his mother’s advice and went for the more secure career option of a job as a butcher with the Co-op.
He never lost his love for the beautiful game and, as a lifelong fan of Notts County, one of the oldest clubs in the world, he still has a season ticket. "Grandad loves his football," smiles Vicky, who sits in the stands at County’s ground with Ralph as their journey begins. "The reason I’m a Notts County fan is because of him!"
Under attack
On 8 and 9 May 1941, Nottingham and its surrounding suburbs were bombed by the Germans, with over 150 people killed in the raid. Revisiting the site of his family home, which is no longer there, Ralph remembers experiencing a near-miss on that terrible night. "We were in the house, and went under the table when they dropped the bomb,’ he recalls. ‘It demolished three rows [of houses] and most people in them were killed. We got windows blown out, doors blown [off] and all that. That was the day that we left. We left and never came back."
Choppy waters
With D-Day planning well underway, Ralph was assigned to a landing craft that would ferry tanks across the Channel in the largest amphibious and airborne invasion in military history. To get a sense of life on board, Vicky visits the one surviving example at Portsmouth’s D-Day Story museum.
"The flat bottom and lack of a keel meant they were constantly pitching and rolling," reveals historian Stephen Fisher, who meets Vicky in the D-Day Map Room and HQ at Southwick House, near Portsmouth. "Even their best sailors, who had spent years at sea, were still being violently sick."
On a mission
Ralph’s flotilla set off from Newhaven, East Sussex, on the eve of the most important day in the war, and took 22 hours to cross the Channel to German-occupied France, a journey he and Vicky retrace considerably faster on a ferry. He recalls the scene as they arrived at Sword Beach on 6 June 1944.
"You’re being fired at as you went in," he explains to his granddaughter. "On the beach it was all mined, and they would do anything to damage the bottom of your boat. And up in the houses, that’s where the snipers were. But we just concentrated on getting the tanks in. It was like hell let loose!"
Visit from Churchill
After the landings, Ralph worked at the Allies’ ingenious portable Mulberry harbour west of Sword Beach, and recalls a visit from Prime Minister Winston Churchill. "I was on the bridge with my binoculars," he says. "Churchill was driving along, and he threw the end of his cigar out of the car – 15 or 20 soldiers dived into the sand, trying to get hold of it as a souvenir!"
After six weeks at the artificial harbour, Ralph returned to England and, having left the Navy, went back to working as a butcher in Nottingham. There, he married his wife Jean (who sadly passed away in December 2022), with whom he would have three children, and five grandchildren, including Vicky.
Fallen comrades
The documentary concludes with a moving visit to the British Normandy Memorial where, proudly wearing his medals, Ralph looks for the name of a comrade among the 22,442 carved in stone there, and is greeted warmly and thanked for his service by other visitors.
It’s a scene that reduces Vicky to tears, and brings home the significance of the whole journey. "He’s just always been my grandad, but if his name was on that wall, I wouldn’t be here," she says. "This has completely floored me, and I felt very lucky to be there with him."
