Mrs Wilson

[unique1986]

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

That was fascinating.

What a tangled web.

Back row, to the left behind two ladies in blue
Thanks. I paused it on that for ages and couldn’t find her. Did anyone else notice that the real Nigel (Ruth’s father) is who she gets her upper lip protrusion from. Much prettier on Ruth!!

I've found her in the pic, thanks.

I've just started to watch the 2nd episode.

I wonder if she would have "married" him if she hadn't fallen pregnant?

In the first ep I was quite annoyed at her treatment of Gladys Wison-the only legitimate wife that he had!

I doubt that his time in intelligence would have demanded that he have so many "wives" & kids!

That red hair OMG....

Wrong thread.....

I enjoyed it, despite the fact I really find RW difficult to watch in anything as I always think she looks insufferably smug.

I agree with PP - I thought Alison was awful to her sons and was an unlikeable character. Glady's son came across as lovely. I couldn't understand how she felt she could control whether or not he had a relationship with his adult brothers, but everyone seemed to do whatever Alison wanted, going along with all the lies and deceit.

I got very annoyed about all the "but he really loved you" stuff. The man treated his 4 families abomnibly. He cheated, lied and betrayed all of them- in what way does that count as being a loving father.

He certainly had no morals.

I was surprised she didn't tell her sons-especially when the first one had started digging into stuff.

Although I can understand how she didn't want to be "exposed" as an unmarried mum.

Did he also marry Dorothy because she was pregnant?

I guess they suggest it might have been part of his intelligence work to try to make him seen less of a shit?

I'd be interested to read Alison's memoir if it's ever published.

In the first ep-did Gladys's son say that Alison could go to prison for bigamy?

Would that be right as at the time she wasn't married to anyone!

I also wondered about the kid's births-if they weren't registered by him then would the kid's surnames have reverted to their mum's when it all came out?

I have to say I think rose Wilson is a brilliant actress, and she's got such an interesting face.

I wonder if because it was her grandmother they wanted to try to not make it too fawning towards her and the upshot was maybe they portrayed her more unsympathetically than they woild have intended.

I think it highly unlikely she'd have went to prison as they would have to have proven she knew he was already married when she married him, but possibly if you look at rhe clues maybe they could have.

Didn't they say he did marry Dorothy he just didn't sign the register?

Ruth Wilson not Rose.

He was a horrible, selfish man.

" as they would have to have proven she knew he was already married when she married him, "

But she wasn't married to anyone else-so not bigamy?

Surely its the person with more than onr spouse who is guilty of bigamy?

I think Gladys’ son made that ‘threat’ early on to quell Ruth, eho was threatening allsorts. He wanted to ptotect his mother and avert a scandal. They were both still in shock at that point, i think.

However, I think Ruth remained in shock, because, every time she began to get her head straight,there was a fresh revelation. She was battling to maintain appearances and to protect her boys from (ehat was then) the enormous stigma of illegitimacy. She just became brittler & brittler in the process and in the end she broke slightly and turned to religion. I see her as heroic in her efforts but eventually damaged.

All the wives and children had to deal with the same shock at some point and all were damaged to a greater or lesser extent.

‘Scuse multiple typos

It made for good drama but I think perhaps confusing as they included the 4 women whereas I think that Alison only knew about Gladys, so hard to know what was true & what wasn't.

Even if he was "in the field" though (with just one wife & 2 kids), they wouldn't be living in abject poverty, would they?

Plus the fact that he's deceived her for 20yrs-wouldn't what he had/hadn't done as part of his job be pretty irrelevant?

Alison didn't commit bigamy. None of 2nd,3rd or 4th marriages were valid but the wives were not bigamists.

I'd be interested to know what he told the other women he was doing when he disappeared.

Plus how often he was in touch/visiting.

Seems he might not have been in Dorothy & Michael's lives for long, but where did Gladys think he was for the 20yrs that he was with Alison?

How did he fit Elizabeth in. ?!!

Anyone know what years his children were born?

I wonder if Gladys's children were adults when Alison's were born?

First son was born in 1921, last son ~1956. Alison’s sons were born in the 40s, so yes, there was almost a generation between Gladys’ and Alison’s families.

BTW, AW’s wikipedia page has now been expanded and a photo added. He really was quite dishy.

Here