Mrs Wilson

[unique1986]

Mrs Wilson starts 9pm on Tuesday 27th November on BBC One.

IRL the guy who wrote Alec's biog, the brilliantly named Professor Crook, was the one who brought the family together.

He found all four wives and seven kids - even after Alec's death none of them knew about all the others.

Rather a sad detail that MI6 probably warned publishers to stop Alec's literary career. They do have form for that kind of thing, reasonably enough, but all the wives and children were penniless for years.

Was Ruth in the family group? It did not seem to make sense that the convalescent home lady would not have realised he continued to write.

Oh goodness. That final episode. Wow.

The end credits where they all file in... amazing.

Watched episode 3 today.
Painful to watch. I had little sympathy for her and found her unlikeable.
The series was well done though.

Agree oblomov. In fact neither seemed particularly likeable. It was all about self preservation in the end. Warning signs were there and she chose to ignore them. It seems surreal now (in the internet age) that someone could lead parallel lives with minimal risk of detection, although he seemed happy enough to take his chances. I wonder who did get the pension etc, Gladys?

It would have been Gladys. She was the only legal wife.

I don't think they portrayed Alison very sympathetically, but we need to remember this was a different era and who the fuck would think their husband had three other wives, she was also very very young in comparison to him. She was 21 when she met him, but what was he, twenty thirty years older and he lied about his age to her?

It was mentioned by Dennis (?) that his Mum Gladys received his war pension as 'proof' they weren't divorced.

Yes I found myself a bit irritated with Mrs Wilson - the character. I didn't want to be. I suppose I wanted to see her engage with her boys life. I know she had been through hell at the hands of her bigamist husband and was very traumatised. I wonder if the character was meant to be an unsympathetic one.

I think they portrayed her as someone who deeply loved her husband and put him first, and above her kids. She wouldn't be the first woman to do this. In fact there has been threads on here where woman have posted they are like this.

Then she struggled to accept what her husband had done. Again I think many would if they are the type to put their husband first.

Clearly they were portraying rhe clues were there, that she didn't question him, she simply accepted what he told her, until after his death.

But she was one of four wives. It didn't explore the other three, Dorothy was portrayed the most, but deeply unpleasantly so, we heard little of Gladys, and nothing at all of Elizabeth.

I'm not sure if Dorothy was really unpleasant or just extremely bitter at the way she had been treated.

The "happy families" bit at the end was the only bit that was absolutely true and not dramatised.

I'm not sure if in real life she was unpleasant, but she was certainly portrayed as an unpleasant woman, following him, violent towards him, lied to her son, demanding money etc, and all those things could have been portrayed in a much kinder manner.

good series and very interesting story

I'm not sure if in real life she was unpleasant, but she was certainly portrayed as an unpleasant woman, following him, violent towards him, lied to her son, demanding money etc, and all those things could have been portrayed in a much kinder manner.
I'm not sure how pleasant I'd be, though, if I had a baby and my husband was seeing a much younger woman and left me in poverty and then that woman turned up 20 years later as if I was the one in the wrong. The facts that Alison, also, had been wronged and that Gladys was his real wife and not his sister didn't seem to be discussed when they met.

As someone else said, Alison didn't actually find out about Dorothy or Elizabeth in real life.

I dont expect she was feeling very well disposed towards life after the way her 'husband' treated her. What would have been a better response in your view? I would have been feeling very unpleasant indeed.

The way she told her son to get out. When he accused her of writing the letter about the stately home.

And then her treatment of the 4th wife, with her son stood outside her house, she banging on the door looking for her husband. Yes a shock, but she should have dealt sympathetically to new wife.

She was unpleasant. In her character. Her core character.

Plus in RL she never did tell the other wife's. Or her sons. They found out after her death.

She, When she was with him was always in denial and they barely spoke!! she never asked him any difficult questions, she was just completely devoted to him like a wet blanket.

She was so weak and pathetic. I couldn't take to her at all.

I thought I myself was very devoted to my husband, in a different way to ds's, but I'm certainly nothing like her!!

You must have a very different, and more forgiving, character than many women, oblomov, I find your lack of comprehension quite bewildering.

I just had a telephone conversation about this programme, and we were pondering on " how do we decide whether a person is good or bad", Rubbish husband and parent, but devoted worker for the national good. That sort of thing, The book and film " Remains of the Day " touched on that issue. Or Himmler's daughter thinking he was a great parent, etc. Fair enough, the jury is not still out on Himmler, is it?

But what about someone who does lots of charity work, and gives millions, and is a bully to his children?

As with many things, I grapple with these issues. And fail to come up with an answer. I'm old enough to see how different time times were, because I was born in the 40s.

Really enjoyed the series.

I did think they went out of the way to portray Alex as sympathetically as they could e.g. his main advocate the Indian friend did not exist in real life . Also the night terrors and struggles post war definitely portrayed him in a more compassionate light.

I didn't think Alison was unpleasant though. I thought Alison was portrayed as contained and stoical in the face of shattering news. She could appear hard faced but that was because she was attempting to hold on to the image of a happy family for her children.

On a side note the Indian friend was played by major Bollywood star Anupham Kher! Grew up watching him in flicks!

Good or bad person? Nobody, surely, is completely one or the other. I like to believe I'm a reasonably ok person, kind to children and animals, look out for the vulnerable etc. If, however, I was confronted with such long lasting and immense duplicity from the person I had trusted most for 20 years then my reactions would likely be similar to Mrs Wilson's, in fact, I would be a lot more furious than she is portrayed as. I doubt I'd be considering much other than my own initial pain, bewilderment, fury and grief. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be wondering how my bigamous husband's other wives and children were feeling just then. Not kind. But human, we are made of contradictions.

Longway what do you mean? My lack of comprehension re what?

There are very few records about his time in India, so the Indian character was made up, which adds another layer. Wikipedia is interesting on that and other matters. Apparently there is more information still not de-classified.

I think the 'unpleasant ' comment was referring to Dorothy not Alison. That's what my comment was about anyway.

I just watched the final part. I really enjoyed it and loved the update at the end which showed the real family.

I didn't think Alison was unpleasant. I know she kept a lot from her sons but hadn't she also signed the Official Secrets Act? Maybe she felt she really couldn't say very much at all, even many years later.

I just watched the final part, too. The entering into the church seems odd to us today, perhaps, but not so much at that time. It is a family, sort of, and the scene where she had the ring put on kind of said , for me " ah, a marriage ( to God) that I can trust".

Rather emotional, the last scene, with the family together. Would we describe his difficulties, today, as PTSD or somesuch?

The fact her husband was a bigamist and a con man would not have been covered by the official secrets act.

I also felt Alex was portrayed more sympathetically than Alison, he was portrayed more as the nice well meaning guy who made mistakes. Maybe a walter Mitty,

I doubt any of the women were unpleasant in real life. It was likely Alex was the unpleasant one, but like any conman had a level of charisma. It's interesting his wives simply got younger and younger, he lied through his teeth to them and his kids, and he pretty much left them destitute.

The fact information about him is still classified will be more about intelligence work and what he uncovered during his employ with the intelligence services.

I was reading an interview and one of the family said many of them were hoping the info withheld exonerated him, but. He can't be exonerated from the fact he was a bigamist, a liar a cheat and a conman, a criminal also, and as such I'd suggest it's highly likely he was highly likely he was fired from the intelligence services for what they say he was fired for.

They will be withokidjnt information not because it would prove him guilty or not, more it will be about security issues.