The image of Winston Churchill as a grizzled, cigar-chomping national hero is so deeply engrained it initially comes as a shock to see Freddie Machin’s electric portrayal of an arrogant young army officer, stranded out of his depth in war-torn South Africa.

His one-man show, Winston on the Run, performed at Southwick’s Farmhouse Inn , paints a very different picture of the elder statesman behind Britain’s finest hour.

Cowering in a coal mine on the run from the Boers, the young Churchill recounts his tale to the assembled rats as he awaits his expected demise, and the audience discovers how the ambitious young war correspondent escaped from a prisoner of war camp in 1899, and came to be wanted, dead or alive.

Switching effortlessly from cocky over-confidence to miserable self-pity, Machin’s Churchill, above, is haunted by the expectations of his overbearing father, and demonstrates the relentless determination which would later make his name.

Machin has clearly immersed himself in the role. His Q+A session afterwards was almost as entertaining as the performance itself, as well as revealing even more of a remarkable true story which helped shape the 20th century.