Did Winston Churchill really run the war from his bathtub?
Sometimes, yes. Churchill worked from bed, held meetings from his bath, and ran the rest of the war from an underground room below the Treasury, and through all of it there was a black cat named Nelson on the floor. In this episode of Our Next Collar, Nelson tells what he saw from down there: the Blitz, the Black Dog, the speeches rehearsed for forty years, and the difference between feeling certain and performing certainty because the moment requires it.
History remembers the famous. Their pets remember the person. On Our Next Collar, a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history. One of them tells what they really saw. This episode is part of the Older Kids tier, for families ready to go a little deeper: same show, same honesty, told up a band and never grown-up. Tonight, a cat from a city holding its breath.
This episode is fully scripted and has passed the Talking With Pets accuracy review. The recording is in production. The audio player and the full transcript will appear right here the day the episode goes live. Join the founding list below and we will write to you when it does.
From the episode
Nelson: He needed something that wasn't requiring anything of him. Something that wasn't a dispatch or a telegram or a decision. He needed to say the true thing to something that would simply receive it.
Armando: (very quietly) Yes.
Nelson: He was telling himself, as much as he was telling me. He needed to hear it said plainly, in a dark room, to a cat who couldn't repeat it. After that, he went to bed.
[The two cats are still for a moment. Prince MoRee gives a slow blink.]
The bed, the bath, the war rooms under the Treasury, the Blitz that began September 7, 1940, and Black Dog, Churchill's own word for his depression, are real. The conversation is ours.
Sources and further reading
- Churchill's premiership, May 10, 1940 to July 26, 1945; the bed and bath working habits, documented by secretaries and staff. International Churchill Society. winstonchurchill.org
- The Cabinet War Rooms, underground below the Treasury, now the Churchill War Rooms. Imperial War Museums. iwm.org.uk
- The Blitz: September 7, 1940 onward, 57 consecutive nights at the start, into May 1941. Imperial War Museums. iwm.org.uk
- âBlack Dogâ: Churchill's term for his depression in letters to Clementine. His documented correspondence.
- The American alliance, Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), and âWe shall fight on the beachesâ (June 4, 1940). The documented record; Churchill's correspondence and memoirs.
- âI felt as if I were walking with destiny,â from The Gathering Storm (1948); the July 1945 election defeat after victory in Europe.
All historical claims above were checked in the Talking With Pets accuracy review, most recently the full editorial pass of July 2026.
Did Winston Churchill really work from his bath?
Yes. Multiple documented accounts, including from his secretaries, describe Churchill working from bed and holding meetings from his bath during his premiership from May 1940 to July 1945. The wartime government also ran from the underground Cabinet War Rooms below the Treasury. Source: Imperial War Museums; documented staff accounts.
Did Churchill really have a cat named Nelson?
Yes. Nelson was a black cat who lived with Churchill at Downing Street during the war years and spent time in the Cabinet War Rooms. Churchill was famously fond of cats his whole life. Source: documented accounts of the Churchill household.
What was the Black Dog?
Black Dog was Churchill's own term for his depression, used in his letters to his wife Clementine. The episode names it honestly: he carried it and kept going, which is the same lesson the show found in Lincoln, approached from a different angle. Source: Churchill's documented letters.
What was the Blitz?
The German bombing campaign against British cities that began on September 7, 1940, with London bombed for 57 consecutive nights at the start, and continued into May 1941. Churchill's speeches from that period, including We shall fight on the beaches from June 4, 1940, are among the most famous in the language. Source: Imperial War Museums.
What is Our Next Collar, and is this episode good for kids?
Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast where a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history, and one of them tells the true story of the person they knew. The core episodes are for ages 6 to 10, and this one is part of the Older Kids tier for ages 9 to 12, for families ready to go a little deeper. Every episode lists its sources and says plainly which parts are real and which are ours. It is a podcast from Talking With Pets.
Our Next Collar · the true stories only the animals saw.
Chaco, Roxie, Moose, Prince MoRee, and Armando are getting the pilot ready. Join the founding list and we will write to you when the first episodes go live. Listen with someone you like.