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Telly addicts

A Very British Scandal - BBC1

223 replies

southeastdweller · 26/12/2021 19:18

On tonight at 9.00, it stars Claire Foy and it's from the same people who did A Very English Scandal a few years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0b568sr

OP posts:
Szyz2020 · 28/12/2021 09:51

@LadyEloise1

Thank you for all the pronouncing tips. Someone mentioned that her father pronounced it In ver a ray. I noticed that too. Was that to let us know that he didn't come from posh beginnings ? He also had a Scottish lilt. Unlike the posh Duke.

I wondered what got the Duke so suddenly enraged that he checked her desk and diaries.
Wikipedia says he had to get a locksmith in to open the secret compartment which held the photos.

Those children caught in the crossfire. His and hers. Sad

He looked at her diary and saw an entry listing the hotel name which was the same hotel as the letter “from” Oui Oui / Wee Wee about the parentage of her children. Oui Oui had said she’d never been there. That’s when he ran (very fast!) back to London to check her desk for more evidence and found all the unused headed paper from the same hotel.
Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/12/2021 09:52

He looked at her diary in Paris while she was sleeping and as he leafed through it he saw an entry that said 'Paris/Lunch with [somebody]/Hotel [name]' and the name was the same as the one on the forged letter fragment sent to him through the post. He put that together with the fact that she had said 'We must stop doing awful things to each other' and then clearly clammed up over the idea when he asked what awful thing had she done to him.

He then deduced that she had forged the letter and raced back to London to rifle through her desk before she could get there. Found the stash of headed/footed paper from that hotel. Drew the appropriate conclusion. Also found the headless photo and much more evidence he could use in a divorce.

They end up in court (as seen at start of ep 1, I assume there's a lot more of that to come in ep 3, which I haven't seen yet) because back in those days you had to go to court to get a divorce. One spouse brought a divorce suit, the other spouse either defended it, ie denied whatever was alleged as grounds for divorce, or (much more commonly) didn't defend it, but even then the judge had to consider the evidence presented and decided whether it was sufficient to grant a divorce. Sometimes they decided it wasn't. Either way it was reported in detail in the press. Far too expensive and nasty for most people, so the vast majority of unhappy marriages limped on until one spouse died, although they were often separated by then.

Piggywaspushed · 28/12/2021 09:54

The father definitely didn't have custody. In the first episode she instructed him to say goodbye to his children.

Boarding school is probably correct.

LadyEloise1 · 28/12/2021 09:56

Thank you

lazymum99 · 28/12/2021 10:01

@ExquisitelyDecorated

Yes to wondering where the children are.
Children of those classes spent very little time with their parents. They would be at school or looked after by ‘staff’. I looked some stuff up and there are a lot of photos of the duchess with her daughter. She was very very pretty. Her daughter is still alive in her 80s, duchess of Rutland. Her son died recently in October 2021
ExquisitelyDecorated · 28/12/2021 10:17

Well yes, I know they spent their time largely with nannies and boarding school, but its as if they don't even exist.

TooWicked · 28/12/2021 10:21

For the purpose of the program, I don’t think including her children would have added anything, we all know they were probably off at boarding school.

ExquisitelyDecorated · 28/12/2021 10:26

To be honest, the less they knew about what was going on the better. The present Duke says his father didn't speak of any of it and he never really knew about any of it till he was in his 20s.

Nutsohazelnuts · 28/12/2021 10:31

Inveraray is one of those where the big house is pronounced differently to the town or village it’s in. Like Harewood.

Palavah · 28/12/2021 11:13

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Miles Jupp played a Welshman last night...

IcedPurple · 28/12/2021 11:19

Not a single pleasant, decent person in this story so far! What a bunch of entitled, grasping inadequates.

"Oui Oui" seems OK from what little we've seen of her.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/12/2021 11:28

My ear for accents was obviously right out! Thanks, @Palavah.

The other 'doctor' was a shady type.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/12/2021 11:29

Yes, the first two ex-wives seem less unpleasant than everyone else.

longwayoff · 28/12/2021 11:30

You are right Gaspode, a handy doctor prescribing amphetamine for the clearly deranged and paranoid Duke can hardly be described as healthy.

Piggywaspushed · 28/12/2021 11:51

Miles Jupp went to Edinburgh University which might explain his passable Scottish Welsh accent gaspode Grin

I only noticed it was him and he was mumbling.

GoodMorningMillicent · 28/12/2021 13:43

I’ve watched eps 1&2 and looking forward to tonight’s finale. I like Clare Foy, although I fear she may become typecast in these ‘plummy English accent’ roles, a sort of young Kristin Scott Thomas.

British upper classes just ghastly characters, really! Good fun to watch, though.

IcedPurple · 28/12/2021 13:48

I was thinking how rubbish it would be to be a woman in aristocratic circles. Your only real value is in producing a son. And even then, like poor Oui Oui, you can be easily discarded once you've served your purpose.

I wonder is it still like that today? Probably.

longwayoff · 28/12/2021 14:31

Like that today? Lady Diana Spencer. She was exceptional only in making a fuss about it as the rest of the ton stood back bewildered. What's all the fuss about? Standard behaviour for men of that class.

IcedPurple · 28/12/2021 14:41

@longwayoff

Like that today? Lady Diana Spencer. She was exceptional only in making a fuss about it as the rest of the ton stood back bewildered. What's all the fuss about? Standard behaviour for men of that class.
But Diana got married 40 years ago! Hard to believe but true. So not really 'today'.

I think one thing that has changed is that upper-class women, like women of all social classes, now have options that they didn't have in Margaret's or even Diana's time. It's much more common now for them to get an education and a career, whereas aristocratic women of other eras were basically 'educated' in order to marry well as soon as possible. So I guess that gives women more leverage.

But it's hard to see how the system could really change unless females get to hold titles in their own right. Diana's family didn't even bother naming her for a week after she was born, because they were so bitterly disappointed that she was not a boy. Had her brother not been born, the Spencer Earldom would have gone into abeyance, even though there were 3 healthy daughters. So archaic, but that's aristocracy for you.

longwayoff · 28/12/2021 15:03

I know, its still medieval although I think the law may have changed regarding succession? But practice is something else. And marrying well is still high on the list. One wouldn't want to look too closely at what passes for acceptable practice in the aristo top 100. The royal family, for instance, is still in the 18c for all their social media and happy family snaps. Lop off a little bit of entitlement and we'll know all about it. New yacht your Maj? Oh, yes please Boris.

IcedPurple · 28/12/2021 16:47

@longwayoff

I know, its still medieval although I think the law may have changed regarding succession? But practice is something else. And marrying well is still high on the list. One wouldn't want to look too closely at what passes for acceptable practice in the aristo top 100. The royal family, for instance, is still in the 18c for all their social media and happy family snaps. Lop off a little bit of entitlement and we'll know all about it. New yacht your Maj? Oh, yes please Boris.
I don't think the succession laws have changed for the peerage, though they have for the royals.

AFAIK, only a minority of peerages can pass through the female line. The majority are still male line only.

RampantIvy · 28/12/2021 17:56

I watched it all on iPlayer, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't understand why falling down a lift shaft should suddenly turn her into a nymphomaniac, as has been suggested in some of the articles I have read about her.

sleepyhoglet · 28/12/2021 17:58

@RampantIvy brain injury can cause lack of inhibitions depending on which part of the head is hit. She seems pretty OK in all of the interviews though and was probably just bored with life!

longwayoff · 28/12/2021 18:40

I haven't read any interviews with her but maybe she just liked to have sex. That's not unusual, especially if you're unfortunate to have married a faithless, misogynistic boor, I would think you'd require some cheering up. Although they both seem utterly horrible people.

IcedPurple · 28/12/2021 19:09

Yeah, why is she being referred to as a 'nymphomaniac'? I thought that term went out in the 1970s?

I don't see why she couldn't just be an attractive woman who enjoyed the company of attractive men? Her husband was out shagging anything with a skirt, so why is it so strange that she might like to indulge every now and then?