alarm with their political masters in the government, to no avail; in desperation, they then turned to other means. Wigram did make at least one attempt at direct publicity – at the time of the occupation of the Rhineland in early 1936, he arranged a press conference for French Minister of Foreign Affairs Flandin, but it had little effect. His efforts in another direction were far more successful. Wigram had begun passing information to Churchill in late 1934, apparently with the knowledge and support of Vansittart. The original path was via Major Desmond Morton, but from early 1935, Wigram began to interact directly with Churchill. From then on, Wigram and Churchill were in close contact. Starting on 7 April 1935, the Wigrams often spent weekends with Churchill at Chartwell, his country house, and Churchill also visited Wigram's London home. The information seems to have been primarily about the German air force, although more general material about German rearmament, and Hitler's character and likely aims, was included, as well. Wigram was one of many people passing information to Churchill; Churchill's biographer, Martin Gilbert, estimated that more than 20 (although he credited Wigram as one of the three main players) were involved. The film Gathering Storm, however, focuses on Wigram; the film's director, Richard Loncraine, said, "in reality there were four 'Wigrams' – two Army officers and two civil servants. It would be cinematographically inept to have four people doing the same thing. What we did was leave out the other three characters." Members of Parliament enjoy parliamentary privilege, including the right to say what they will and discuss what they will during proceedings in Parliament. Well aware of this, Churchill was able to criticise the UK government in the House of Commons without fear of comeback. The position of those who supplied him with data on Britain's defences, or the lack of them, can be explained by the fact that, as a privy councillor and former chancellor of the exchequer, Churchill had the highest level of security clearance and could, therefore, be assumed not to misuse the information passed to him. Baldwin's government certainly did not like the passing of information to Churchill; Walter Runciman, the president of the Board of Trade, was sent to see Wigram's wife Ava when Wigram was not at home to try to convince her to stop her husband from passing information to Churchill. Wigram and