A Very British Scandal / coming soon on BBC One

 

A Very British Scandal will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9pm on Sunday, December 26, 2021 (Boxing Day).

A Very British Scandal plot

Paul Bettany and Claire Foy in A Very British Scandal

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/a-very-british-scandal-release-date-bbc-one/

 

In a similar vein to 2018’s A Very English Scandal, a dramatisation of the 1976–1979 Jeremy Thorpe scandal, this drama will focus on the antics surrounding the divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in the 1960s.

 

Described as one of the 20th Century’s most notorious, extraordinary and brutal legal cases, it was a divorce that was highly-publicised and included the discovery of salacious photographs and scandalous testimonies. Famed for her charisma, beauty and style, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, was a bona-fide celebrity who frequently made the front pages.

 

Creator and writer Sarah Phelps has spoken of her excitement about dramatising the story, which will explore the social attitudes of post-war Britain towards women and question whether institutional misogyny was widespread at the time.

 

“Writing the story of Margaret’s life and the events leading up to and including her divorce from the Duke has been a passion project of mine since 1993 when I first heard her name and started learning about her,” Phelps said in a statement.

 

“I felt very strongly that she’d been punished for being a woman, for being visible, for refusing to back down, be a good girl and go quietly. This drama is my tribute to her.”

 

 

The REAL story of A Very British Scandal: Claire Foy plays 'Dirty Duchess' of Argyll whose husband revealed picture of her having oral sex with headless man - who has never been identified - during explosive divorce battle

 

Duke and Duchess' divorce one of most turbulent court cases of 20th century

Margaret, Duchess of Argyll's reputation never recovered after husband used explicit Polaroid of her to prove her infidelity - despite his own affairs

Explosive 1963 divorce set to be focus of BBC miniseries A Very British Scandal

 

By HAYLEY RICHARDSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:53 GMT, 12 March 2021 | UPDATED: 18:07 GMT, 12 March 2021

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9354445/The-real-story-British-Scandal-Duke-Dirty-Duchess-Argylls-explosive-divorce.html

 

The embittered divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll was one of the most turbulent court cases of the 20th century, fraught with forgery, bribery, theft and scandal surrounding explicit photographs.

 

Charismatic Margaret, Duchess of Argyll's reputation never recovered, after she was branded a nymphomaniac by her husband, Scottish peer Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, who stole an explicit Polaroid picture of her and used it to expose her infidelity - making her one of the first victims of revenge porn, according to her biographer.

 

The image allegedly showed Margaret wearing only her signature triple-string of pearls while fellating an unidentified man and was reportedly 'full frontal' and 'left nothing to the imagination'.

 

She never let on the identity of her male companion in the snap, only pictured from the neck down, and he became known as the 'Headless Man' - while she was branded the 'dirty duchess'.

 

To this day, his identity remains unknown, but over the years it's been speculated that the man was New York stockbroker Joe Thomas, who Margaret enjoyed a romance with before she met and married the Duke. 

 

Other rumours claimed it was the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr, former Nazi Sigismund von Braun, and Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Defence and Winston Churchill’s son-in-law.

 

Now the couple's explosive 1963 divorce battle which made front page news is to be the focus of a new BBC miniseries entitled A Very British Scandal. It will come from the same team behind A Very English Scandal, which dramatised the Jeremy Thorpe saga that rocked the UK government in the 1970s.

 

 

Claire Foy is set to star as Margaret opposite Paul Bettany, who will play her second husband, the 11th Duke of Argyll - whose youngest son is Lord Colin Ivar Campbell, former husband of Lady Colin Campbell.

 

Lyndsy Spence, who penned The Grit in the Pearl: The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, said Margaret was in many ways 'an early victim of celebrity hacking', with her private images 'revealed without her say-so'.

 

'She was publicly sl*t-shamed; the same legal system that prevented Margaret from telling her side of the story without the risk of imprisonment, permitting Ian to exhibit the stolen Polaroids,' she explained.

 

The series will particularly focus on the attitudes towards women at the time, as Margaret was particularly vilified throughout her divorce battle for refusing to go quietly despite being betrayed by friends and publicly shamed by society.

 

Born in East Renfreshire in 1912 as Ethel Margaret Whigham, she was the only child of self-made millionaire George and Helen, and spent her childhood between New York, London and Ascot.

 

But her father's philandering took their toll on her mother, who suffered extreme mood swings as a result.

 

Margaret was taken to a psychiatrist at the age of six, who diagnosed her with lacking a sense of humour. She also developed a stammer, for which she was treated unsuccessfully by Lionel Logue, King George VI's speech therapist.

 

She preferred men's company from a young age, and lost her virginity to actor David Niven when she was 15. She fell pregnant and had a secret termination, arranged by her parents.

 

Two years later her social career took off when she was named Debutante of the Year in 1930. She went on to have four failed engagements - first to Prince Aly Khan, whose Muslim faith repelled the Whighams; Glen Kidston, a married millionaire sportsman who died in plane crash; Max Aitken, the son of Lord Beaverbrook; and Fulke Warwick, a penniless earl.

 

At 20, she eventually married Charles Sweeny, an Irish-American stockbroker and amateur golfer, whose family's millions came from coal-mining, oil, and smelting. Their wedding day was a glamorous affair, stopping traffic for three hours as 2,000 guests attended the Brompton Oratory while another 2,000 onlookers gathered to see her Norman Hartnell wedding gown's 28ft train.

 

The couple remained married for 15 years, during which Margaret suffered eight miscarriages and a stillbirth before welcoming a daughter, Frances, and son Brian.

 

But their relationship broke down, with Margaret blaming it on Charlie's philandering during the war, claiming all he wanted in a spouse was a 'pretty brainless doll'.

 

He, however, claimed she 'changed totally' after falling 40ft down a lift shaft in 1943 while visiting a chiropodist on Bond Street - an accident her next husband also used to claim she'd suffered brain damage so he could divorce her on the grounds of insanity.

 

It was also rumoured that the fall had caused nymphomania, as well as damage to her olfactory nerve, which affects one's sense of smell.

 

Before she met and married the Duke in 1951 - four years after her divorce from Charles Sweeney in 1947 - Margaret enjoyed a romance with New York stockbroker Joe Thomas.

 

In January 2019, Ms Spence claimed he is the Headless Man from the Polaroid; it was previously rumoured to have been Douglas Fairbanks Jr, former Nazi Sigismund von Braun, and Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Defence and Winston Churchill’s son-in-law.

 

Margaret and Joe met in Berlin and reportedly took explicit photographs using a Polaroid camera, keeping one each as a memento. They allegedly showed Margaret wearing only her signature triple-string of pearls while fellating an unidentified man.

 

However, despite proposing to Margaret, Joe was already betrothed to socialite Poppi de Salis. He travelled to St Moritz to end it with his first fiancee, but ended up marrying her, breaking Margaret's heart.

 

Ms Spence interviewed Joe's son Michael, who found his father's copies of the Polaroids while looking through an old trunk.

 

Margaret stored her copy behind a bookcase in her house in London, but their hiding place was eventually rumbled by her embittered second husband who used them to fuel his claims about her promiscuity.

 

Margaret met Ian Campbell, Duke of Argyll, on a train at Gare du Nord in 1949. He pursued her relentlessly, knowing she was wealthy - while his own estate was worthless.

 

She took pity on him, after he told her of his five years spent as a prisoner of war and his marital problems with his second wife Louise, an American heiress, and convinced her father to give him £100,000 to restore his family seat in western Scotland, Inveraray Castle.

 

The Duke then forged a Deed of Gift and promised to marry her when his divorce had come through. They wed in 1951, but Ian soon showed his true colours; Ms Spence claimed he had an addiction to gambling, alcohol and prescription drugs, and an unpredictable temper.

 

He grew to resent his wife when she began refusing to pay off any more of his debts after three years of marriage. The couple agreed to have an open marriage and live separately.

 

Furious that Margaret was no longer funding his wayward lifestyle, the Duke set about trying to divorce Margaret and hired private detectives to follow her.

 

He gathered evidence to prove she was unfaithful, including stealing her letters and diaries which contained the names of her alleged lovers - many of whom Ms Spence insists were gay - while she was abroad. It was then that he came across the Polaroids.

 

Ian filed a divorce petition with the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which took four years to reach a verdict. Lord Wheatley, renowned for his harsh sentences, oversaw the case and ruled Margaret was a 'highly sexed woman who has ceased to be satisfied with normal sexual activities'.

 

The Duke was granted a divorce on the grounds of Margaret's adultery and she was ordered to pay seven-eighths of the £50,000 legal bill. Meanwhile nothing was said about Ian's own affairs or his subsequent remarriage to Mathilda Mortimer, a rich American, just six weeks later.

 

The scandal wrought irreparable damage on Margaret's reputation and her relationship with her daughter Frances - who married the Duke of Rutland and is now the Dowager Duchess and grandmother to Lady Violet, Lady Alice and Lady Eliza Manners.

 

Frances came to see her mother as a 'nightmare of embarrassment', a friend told Vanity Fair in 1968. The pair did reconcile before Margaret's death in 1993, by which point she was living at St George's Nursing Home in Pimlico. Ian died in 1973.

 

A Very British Scandal will be penned by Sarah Phelps, who previously penned The Pale Horse, Dublin Murders and the 2012 miniseries version of Great Expectations.

 

She said: 'Writing the story of Margaret's life and the events leading up to and including her divorce from the Duke has been a passion project of mine since 1993 when I first heard her name and started learning about her.

 

'I felt very strongly that she'd been punished for being a woman, for being visible, for refusing to back down, be a good girl and go quietly. This drama is my tribute to her.'

 

Claire Foy, who starred as Queen Elizabeth II in the first two series of The Crown, said: 'I'm so excited to work with Anne, Sarah and Paul on this extraordinary project, and to explore through this story, how often shame, judgement and controversy surrounds a woman's sexuality.'

 

Her co-star Paul Bettany, who most recently starred in Wandavision and Solo: A Star Wars Story added: 'I'm delighted to be working with the remarkable Claire Foy to tell the fascinating and scandalous story of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll and their very complicated lives.

 

'I'm also extremely happy to get the chance to once again be working with the wonderful teams at the BBC and Amazon Studios.'

 

Pete Czernin, co-founder of Blueprint Pictures, said: 'We're thrilled to be able to bring together the uniquely brilliant voices of Sarah Phelps and Anne Sewitsky with the class of Claire Foy and Paul Bettany.

 

'Uniting their outstanding talents, A Very British Scandal will shine a new light on the scandalous divorce of Margaret Argyll for a 21st century audience.'

 

Piers Wenger, Director of BBC Drama, said: 'Argyll v Argyll was one of the defining scandals of the 1960s. In the face of vilification in the press, Margaret fought valiantly but often in vain to control the narrative around her.

 

'With the help of our incredible writer Sarah Phelps, director Anne Sewitsky, the perfect casting of Claire Foy and Paul Bettany and the team at Blueprint, we are delighted to be able to shine a new light on these events and re-frame the life of this infamous character.'

 

The three-part series will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK and be available on Amazon Prime Video in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

 

Filming for A Very British Scandal takes place across the UK later this year, with further casting to be announced in the coming months.

 

It comes following the success of A Very English Scandal, which depicted MP Jeremy Thorpe's homosexual relationship with Norman Josiffe, and the fallout which sparked the end of his political career.

 

The series was penned by It's A Sin's Russell T Davies, and earned critical acclaim for stars Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw.

Sarah Phelps “thought a lot” about Meghan Markle while writing A Very British Scandal

 

The series charts the turbulent divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.

 

By Abby Robinson

Published: Friday, 3rd December 2021 at 12:01 am

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/very-british-scandal-meghan-markle-newsupdate/

 

This year’s Christmas TV schedule has plenty of mouth-watering offerings to keep everyone delighted and entertained, from little ones to bigger ones to your old-timers who have seen it all. And Sarah Phelps, the brain behind the BBC’s most recent spate of Agatha Christie adaptations and the Dublin Murders, to name just a few, has written a crown jewel of a show which is certain to get the nation talking.

 

A Very British Scandal, which is the unconnected follow-up to Russell T Davies’ A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, focuses on the widely-publicised divorce between Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll and Ian Campbell, 11th and 4th Duke of Argyll.

 

Hot on the heels of her first divorce, the Duchess, played by The Crown’s Claire Foy, was seduced by the Duke, played by WandaVision’s Paul Bettany, who was the opposite of divorced but quickly took steps to pledge himself to Margaret, and the pair married. But the duo were not built to last and their relationship crashed and burned in catastrophic style as the press and public lapped up every extraordinary moment.

 

Despite the events of this sorry saga unfolding in the 1950s and ’60s, Phelps told RadioTimes.com and other press during a Q&A that she couldn’t help but draw parallels between Margaret and one particular modern-day figure.

 

“I think a lot about Meghan Markle and about how much the press hate her, how much they absolutely go for her all the time compared with Kate Middleton,” she said. “And there’s a kind of prevailing idea that if you’re in the public eye, you’re fair game, you’re meat. If you put yourself out there, you’re meat, and if you get bruised, so what? That’s your job. Your job is to be ripped apart by us. And that’s who I thought a lot about when I was writing this.”

 

Phelps also went on to explain what it is about the Duchess of Argyll that really appealed to her.

 

“I just really admire her guts,” she said. “I admire her guts and not going quietly. Yes, she had the means to fight [her husband in court]. Yes, she still lost. But I admire her guts at refusing to do what her gender, what her sex, what her class would have really, really required her to do, which is don’t say a word, don’t drag us through the gutter, don’t fool us, don’t shame us – the upper classes, the wealthy. Don’t expose us and our practices and the way we live our lives that should be behind closed doors.

 

“And she just went, ‘Not a chance.’ And did all of that. She’s kind of the birth of the tabloid, in a way.”

 

A Very British Scandal will premiere on BBC One on Boxing Day at 9pm. All three episodes will be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer from that time. The series will also continue across the following two nights on BBC One.