Creating A Fictional Branch of the Spencer Family for a TV Character

[Kenneth Michael]

Hello.

I have created a television show, an hour-long drama with comedic elements (a.k.a. dramedy), which is primarily set in the mountains of North Carolina. The father of two of the main characters, Thomas Winston Spencer (age 60 in 2017), is an Englishman who attended Harvard to earn his Master's after having gotten his undergraduate degree from The London School of Economics and Political Science. He meets and falls in love with a local student, Maura Mary Quinn, who attends Boston College. They quickly marry and start a family. (The Troubles is part of her family background; her people are from Belfast and are members of the Winter Hill gang out of Boston, which supplies guns and money to the IRA. The fact that the man in her life is not only English but also Protestant is not coincidental.)

My reason for posting is to ask if anyone can give me a suggestion for his family lineage as he has always imagined himself capable of great things as a relative of Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, a man he idolizes. Only I would prefer there be a wrinkle where he has had to earn his own way, so he can't be a very close relative, far enough removed that his family isn't wealthy (anymore?), but close enough that the Spencer family line is continuous. To avoid any possibility of unpleasantries, I'd of course have it be a fictional branch of the family.

I was thinking he'd be from one of the following, but am very open to suggestions: Liverpool, Manchester, Worthing, Blackpool, Southport, or Oxfordshire. Other than that, I would like suggestions for any details which would tie-in with the known characteristics of Mr. Churchill. As an example, he will be a Johnnie Walker drinker, but he is the sort who does not believe in adornment and such, so no mixed drinks, just a little water like the prime minister used to do. However, he likes the blue label version, a small self-indulgence he allows himself due to its connotations of having arrived financially (he makes a tidy sum as a money manager for international conglomerates) in spite of his poor upbringing.

I don't want him to try to act like he is Mr. Churchill, however, as he is very much his own man. So, it is more that he is inspired by the stories he heard growing up. Additionally, he has the belief that it is better to go without something than have an inferior version, so he has very few belongings, but will have spared no expense when it comes to the items he does buy. Put simply, he uses a quality of quantity approach. One example would be what kind of glass he drinks out of. This is harder to choose than I thought because a plain tumbler makes a certain sense, but I think maybe a bit of panache makes sense as well, so cut crystal, or perhaps an engraved Glencairn Glass instead?

Thank you in advance for any feedback/suggestions you are able to provide everyone. Cheers!

 

[Curryong]

Congratulations on your writing endeavours. Hope it goes further.
I think this man would like the finer things in life when he could get them, so I do think he would drink whisky from a crystal glass, maybe have an occasional large cigar, (Xmas, birthdays.)

Could his grandfather perhaps be a paternal cousin of Lord Randolph Churchill’s who had maybe gone off the rails a bit as a young man, lost what money he had?

I suppose there could even be a fictional younger brother of Lord Randolph, who was this man’s great grandfather. His grandson had caused a scandal of some sort and so this man, his descendant, had to emigrate from London, originally Oxfordshire.

 

[Kenneth Michael]

Congratulations on your writing endeavours. Hope it goes further.
I think this man would like the finer things in life when he could get them, so I do think he would drink whisky from a crystal glass, maybe have an occasional large cigar, (Xmas, birthdays.)

Could his grandfather perhaps be a paternal cousin of Lord Randolph Churchill’s who had maybe gone off the rails a bit as a young man, lost what money he had?

I suppose there could even be a fictional younger brother of Lord Randolph, who was this man’s great grandfather. His grandson had caused a scandal of some sort and so this man, his descendant, had to emigrate from London, originally Oxfordshire.

I will need to do a little digging to gain the clarity of the family connection, but you clearly know the relationships make sense, and so this is just what I was looking for, a black sheep ancestor to "make up for." Thank you!

 

[Prinsara]

It’s probably also important to note that Churchill exhibited all the symptoms of some form of bipolar disorder and personally believed himself capable of terrible things as well. His insistence on an aristocratic lifestyle left him writing for his supper most of the time the British taxpayers weren’t paying for it.

He also wrote an extraordinary story about the father who didn’t think much of him. “The Dream”: A Fictional Encounter by Winston S. Churchill

 

[Kenneth Michael]

It’s probably also important to note that Churchill exhibited all the symptoms of some form of bipolar disorder and personally believed himself capable of terrible things as well. His insistence on an aristocratic lifestyle left him writing for his supper most of the time the British taxpayers weren’t paying for it.

He also wrote an extraordinary story about the father who didn’t think much of him. “The Dream”: A Fictional Encounter by Winston S. Churchill

Thank you for the input. I will read this article ASAP.

I know he was a generally poor student as a youngster, and so forced into the military by his father, an accomplished politician himself. What I am surprised I was unaware of prior to starting my research for this project was that his mother was American and he won a Nobel Prize for his writing. I don't know how I could have forgotten those facts, as surely I read it at one point or another, but his role in the Second World War obviously overshadows all else. I understand he drank morning, noon and night, but tended to water down his drinks, and that he was a frequent nap-taker.

 

[Prinsara]

Part of WSC also thought he might be in for an early death since Lord Randolph died under mysterious (and since it was assumed syphilis at the time, shameful) circumstances at the age of 45. He felt both he might have a limited time to accomplish anything and a desire to redeem the family name due to his father’s failed promising political career. As it turned out, he lived twice as long, but was perfectly certain he’d die on the anniversary of his father’s death — and he did.