Michael Gambon will play prime minister Winston Churchill in a new ITV drama about his final years in office as his health declined.

Sir Michael will appear with Lindsay Duncan, who plays his wife Clementine, in the one-off film Churchill's Secret, which is being filmed at his country home of Chartwell in Kent.

The show, which will also be broadcast on PBS in the United States next year, is set during the summer of 1953 when the then-peacetime prime minister had a stroke, which was kept secret from the world.

ITV director of drama Steve November said: "Churchill's Secret is the extraordinary and compelling story of how one of our country's most famous political figures battled back from life-threatening illness to hold on to power.

"We're delighted to commission Churchill's Secret from Daybreak Pictures and to be working with Michael Gambon as Sir Winston Churchill and Lindsay Duncan as his wife Clemmie."