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The wild true story of the infamous Mitford sisters comes to life

The wild true story of the infamous Mitford sisters comes to life

The Age5 days ago
Mitford fans recognise each other; they're the people in any bookshop hovering by the M shelf, picking up anything new about the endlessly fascinating Mitford sisters. A rabble of uneducated but dazzlingly posh girls, the six Mitford sisters (and their one brother) grew up between the wars in a succession of English country houses, raising bizarre animals, swapping cutting witticisms in languages they invented and pursuing whatever interests they could drum up in the absence of schooling. They were also scandalous. A century later, their fans remain legion.
Twenty-five years ago, scriptwriter and Mitford fan Sarah Williams read a new biography of the family by Mary Lovell, The Mitford Girls. Episodic television was entering its golden phase. This was surely perfect material: extraordinary, racy and real. 'Then she wrote a pitch and had no luck whatsoever,' says Matthew Mosley, executive producer of new series Outrageous. 'We met her, three or four years ago, and said, 'We'd love to work with you; what story do you want to tell?'' The true story of the Mitfords, of course.
Outrageous covers the sisters' volcanic lives up to 1937. Two of them – Diana and Unity – became prominent Fascists. Diana, having been known in the social pages as the most beautiful woman in England, was renamed 'the most hated woman in England' after she left her wealthy husband for Oswald Mosley, leader of the Blackshirts. Unity persuaded her parents to send her to finishing school in Munich, where she made it her business to find and befriend the Fuhrer.
Jessica became a Communist and eventually a prominent journalist in the United States. Pamela became a gentlewoman farmer; Deborah married well and was known henceforth as the Duchess of Devonshire. Nancy, the eldest, turned their lives into comic novels – Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love are the classics – that have never been out of print. What is remarkable is they were raised under one roof and were fiercely devoted to each other – mostly, anyway – but headed in such different directions.
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'They were so isolated. They were so isolated,' reflects Bessie Carter, who plays Nancy. She is not only the leading character, but provides snatches of wry voiceover tying the drama together; we see their world through her eyes. 'They were like this tribe in the countryside who weren't allowed to go to school and weren't really allowed to socialise, so they were really sort of starved of social connection. They only had each other and I suppose if you have siblings, if one sibling goes one way you probably want to go the other way just to spite them. There's that kind of dynamic, which I think then played out on a global scale.'
Coincidentally, Carter has history with Nancy Mitford; a few years ago, she was chosen to read The Pursuit of Love as an audiobook. Television viewers may know her as Prudence Featherington in Bridgerton; she has a voice and face that fit easily into past times. One of the great things about Outrageous, she says, is that she didn't have to wear a corset. 'We were very much in an era where women could wear trousers. And I was lucky with Nancy; she was a lot more Bohemian in what she wore when juxtaposed with Diana, who is … like a steely swan.'
Joanna Vanderham, who plays Diana, is often seen in evening dress. 'I was so uncomfortable. I had to have help going to the bathroom,' she says.
Producer Matthew Mosley has history of a different kind with this material. He is Oswald Mosley's great-grandson, descended from the British Union of Fascists leader's first marriage. Mosley never met his great-grandfather – he died before he was born – but grew up with that knowledge. 'I've always been honest about it, because it's important to acknowledge things that happened and that are still happening,' he says.
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Even so, it was a shock to find himself working on a series in which his disgraced ancestor was a major character. 'There was a moment of thinking, 'Oh goodness this is a very strange scenario,'' he says. 'But I loved working with Sarah, I loved her writing and her take on the story, I found it so immersive.' The situation came to feel normal, with only odd moments making him gasp.
'Seeing the amazing Joshua Sasse step out on set in all his hair and make-up as Oswald Mosley and give that performance: it was surreal to be in that position,' he remembers. Sasse threw himself into research, collecting scrapbooks of images and nuggets of history that Mosley knew nothing about. 'Joshua showed me a letter to Mosley from his mother where she compares him to the Messiah,' he told Time magazine. 'That's a strange little insight into his psychology that I won't forget.'
As he points out, however, the main focus of the series is on the siblings. The Mitfords were aristocrats whose feet were firmly planted in another era; the paterfamilias, the second Baron Redesdale, was a huntin'-and-shootin' dictator notable for mismanaging the family finances so badly they were forced to keep renting out their country house and moving into ever smaller London flats. There would be no more money; Outrageous is, among other themes, about the dramatic decline of the landed gentry.
A decision was made, however, to abandon the dialect of their class, long in vowels and clipped in consonants, which is – remarkably – now entirely obsolete. 'We wouldn't sound relatable if they spoke as they really did,' says Shannon Watson, who plays Unity. 'It was as if they had speech impediments.' A dialect coach brought them into line with each other. 'The point isn't how they spoke,' says Carter. 'The point is what they did in their lives.'
This series finishes in 1937 – Mosley and Williams are hoping to make a second and possibly a third – when supposedly no one knew quite how monstrous the Nazi and Italian Fascist regimes were. News was filtering through, however, even to their country pile, thanks to Jessica's monitoring of radical literature. Their arguments are disquieting. 'I had lines where Diana said she was told about concentration camps, but it was Germany's business and she didn't intend to get embroiled in it,' says Vanderham. 'I found it very difficult to say those lines. I couldn't even learn them.'
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This dark seam runs through their story; the family, split down the middle within their little bubble of privilege, is a microcosm of a divided society. 'I think at the heart of the series, it asks: can you love a family member and despise their politics?' says Carter. 'And I think that is the relevant point of the series. Here were six sisters who were repetitively told they weren't allowed to be educated, they had no role in society other than being a wife and mother and they said, 'I don't want that.' And I suppose, when you don't listen to people, you make them feel voiceless – and the voiceless will then go somewhere and scream louder.'
Outrageous, as the name suggests, is as much froth as it is about trouble. The Mitfords were fascinating, surmises Mosley, as women 'who all, for better or worse, took their destinies into their hands and made their own fate'. But they were also funny. There are 17,000 letters written between them. 'If you read any of them, you get the sense immediately that humour was the lifeblood of this family, it's how they all related to each other.' Those intimate exchanges set the tone: there is the shadow of war, but there is also one sister kicking another under the dining table and giggling. 'And to me, that reflects life as it is,' says Moseley. 'It's never all one thing.'
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SBS Learn English 에피소드 91: 잡 추천서 요청하기 (중급)
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SBS Learn English 에피소드 91: 잡 추천서 요청하기 (중급)

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‘I'm glad I'm starting again': Eryn Jean Norvill on finding herself at 40
‘I'm glad I'm starting again': Eryn Jean Norvill on finding herself at 40

Sydney Morning Herald

timea day ago

  • Sydney Morning Herald

‘I'm glad I'm starting again': Eryn Jean Norvill on finding herself at 40

This story is part of the July 27 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories. Eryn Jean Norvill is no stranger to taking a stand. Throughout her stage career, she has advocated for actors' rights, especially women, and approached her roles with a depth that has earned her critical acclaim. Now, as she takes on her first major TV project, she's even advocating for a dead woman, albeit a fictional one. 'Playing a female victim is something I had a lot of queries about,' Norvill, 40, says of her role in The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer, the third season of thecrime drama series. 'I had all the questions. Is it nuanced? Is it smart? Is it saying the things we want it to say about victimhood in the world right now?' In The Twelve, Norvill plays Amanda Taylor, an English teacher turned wannabe crime author who is murdered while researching a book about the alleged homicide of two young women in 1968. The Sydney-born actor was determined to get the part right, which included asking tough questions of director Madeleine Gottlieb and writer Sarah L. Walker. 'Madeleine and Sarah had all the answers for me, and were open to me having big opinions on what I needed the role to be in order to play a woman who is killed,' says Norvill. 'Playing Amanda gave me the opportunity to activate her agency every step of the way. She is an incredibly strong woman, but learning that a strong woman can be a victim as well is very confronting.' Another drawcard for Norvill is her co-stars, who include Danielle Cormack and series lead Sam Neill. Norvill says Neill was great company on the four-month shoot in Perth, the pair debriefing over burger lunches and beach walks. 'I was grateful to have Sam knock on my door and ask me to get a bite to eat and check in while filming,' she says. 'He is a very generous person. It was a real highlight to hang with him and hear about his life.' Switching mediums in midlife is an emerging theme for actors; Neill, for example, got his start in film. Norvill says she is relishing her break from the stage – 'I have loved coming into a new medium mid-career' – while acknowledging that it will inevitably call her back at some point. Before The Twelve, Norvill had only had a few small TV parts, including in Home and Away (2010), Preppers (2021) and It's Fine, I'm Fine (2022). The switch to television is proving therapeutic for Norvill, whose theatre career was at times consumed as much by what happened off stage as on it. In 2017, she reluctantly became a household name when she made a private complaint about actor Geoffrey Rush to the Sydney Theatre Company, alleging he behaved inappropriately towards her during a 2015 production of King Lear. Details of the complaint, which Rush denied, leaked to Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper. He sued the paper for defamation and was awarded $2.87 million in damages (Norvill was subpoenaed to give evidence at the trial). It's an episode she doesn't wish to relive, or discuss. However, it spurred her to join with her friend Sophie Ross to launch the not-for-profit organisation Safe Theatres Australia with the aim of highlighting sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying in the workplace, and making theatre and the arts a safe place. Norvill says the organisation 'really activated my politics and made me aware of social activism and how that has always been a big part of my life. I got that side from both of my parents, and I was really proud of that achievement. It felt impossible to do, but it was successful.' 'Being in London is allowing me to be curious about what sort of person I am and what is meaningful to me again.' Eryn Jean Norvill, actor Norvill has since stepped back from the day-to-day running of Safe Theatres Australia 'because I felt I needed some space from that kind of work to do some personal healing and processing'. Part of that stepping back – and moving on – has been a temporary shift to London, where she has been working through a process of finding out who she is again, making new friends and leaning into the unknown. 'I know I won't be here forever,' she says of the UK. 'Australia makes incredible art – we have a courage I don't recognise in many other places. But I didn't expect to be starting again at my age, essentially asking myself why, what for, and is it meaningful. 'I wish I was told more about this as a kid – that in this business there are lots of starts and ends, and it will never stop throughout your life.' Norvill is Zooming from the London flat she shares with Australian musician Georgia Mooney (from Sydney outfit All Our Exes Live in Texas), the pair on a similar journey of seeing what might come their way. She is also dog-sitting, spinning her camera to show me a curled-up ball of fur by her side. 'We have a piano in the home and Georgia plays it a lot,' Norvill adds. 'And we go to a lot of gigs together.' Born in Sydney, Norvill recalls her teen years in Malabar, a seaside suburb in Sydney's south-east, including snorkelling at nearby Long Bay, where the MV Malabar was shipwrecked in 1931. 'I'd find pieces of crockery that belonged to the ship all the time,' she says. Unlike the gentrified suburb it is today, the Malabar of Norvill's childhood had a grittiness she holds dear. 'There's a sewage works, a rifle range, the beach, a golf course, cliffs and Long Bay Jail. The inmates would run a nursery every year, and we'd buy trees and play soccer with them.' Her mother, Anita, taught child studies at TAFE, while her dad, Greg, was a marathon runner and engineer who also turned his hand to home renovation. She has an older brother, Ben, with both siblings equally drawn to the arts. 'Ben plays the five-string bass,' says Norvill. 'He is annoyingly talented and loves prog-rock.' Despite growing up in Sydney, Norvill graduated from Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts and built her name starring in productions for both the Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company, including The Picture of Dorian Gray (before Sarah Snook took over the role), Three Sisters, All My Sons, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Prior to the defamation saga, Norvill had co-written, co-directed and starred in Niche with her best friend Emily Tomlins, the sci-fi thriller garnering rave reviews for their company, Elbow Room. 'I am lucky to have my long-time collaborator and friend Emily with me in life,' Norvill says. 'We have always made things together, and Niche is something we spent five years creating. It was incredibly vulnerable and hard; a hyper-feminist piece in which I grew up a lot and got to trust myself as a female maker.' Trusting other female makers is a large part of what drew Norvill to The Twelve. Still, arriving at a career juncture like this comes with plenty of self-doubt and big questions, but Norvill is learning to trust the process. The Twelve has helped her see things differently, too. 'I am actually glad that I am at the point in my life where I have to start again,' she says. 'I think it's because I have had a lot of stop-starts in my career.' In 2019, Norvill went with her brother Ben to Download Festival in Sydney to see UK heavy metal band Judas Priest perform. 'Everyone I met there was so sweet and gentle,' she says. 'I had beautiful conversations, which I haven't had at a festival before. I felt like I got a warm hug from the crowd that day. Who would have thought a metal crowd is where I'd be?' Loading Norvill's curiosity for life has seen her dabble in drawing cartoons, which she does to relax and distract herself from acting. 'Being in London is allowing me to be curious about what sort of person I am and what is meaningful to me again,' she says. 'Finding out what I'm like at 40 feels weird, but I'm reminded that I'm lucky to have deep friendships, a moral circumference, good taste and boundaries – because these people in my life reflect that back in me.'

‘I'm glad I'm starting again': Eryn Jean Norvill on finding herself at 40
‘I'm glad I'm starting again': Eryn Jean Norvill on finding herself at 40

The Age

timea day ago

  • The Age

‘I'm glad I'm starting again': Eryn Jean Norvill on finding herself at 40

This story is part of the July 27 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories. Eryn Jean Norvill is no stranger to taking a stand. Throughout her stage career, she has advocated for actors' rights, especially women, and approached her roles with a depth that has earned her critical acclaim. Now, as she takes on her first major TV project, she's even advocating for a dead woman, albeit a fictional one. 'Playing a female victim is something I had a lot of queries about,' Norvill, 40, says of her role in The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer, the third season of thecrime drama series. 'I had all the questions. Is it nuanced? Is it smart? Is it saying the things we want it to say about victimhood in the world right now?' In The Twelve, Norvill plays Amanda Taylor, an English teacher turned wannabe crime author who is murdered while researching a book about the alleged homicide of two young women in 1968. The Sydney-born actor was determined to get the part right, which included asking tough questions of director Madeleine Gottlieb and writer Sarah L. Walker. 'Madeleine and Sarah had all the answers for me, and were open to me having big opinions on what I needed the role to be in order to play a woman who is killed,' says Norvill. 'Playing Amanda gave me the opportunity to activate her agency every step of the way. She is an incredibly strong woman, but learning that a strong woman can be a victim as well is very confronting.' Another drawcard for Norvill is her co-stars, who include Danielle Cormack and series lead Sam Neill. Norvill says Neill was great company on the four-month shoot in Perth, the pair debriefing over burger lunches and beach walks. 'I was grateful to have Sam knock on my door and ask me to get a bite to eat and check in while filming,' she says. 'He is a very generous person. It was a real highlight to hang with him and hear about his life.' Switching mediums in midlife is an emerging theme for actors; Neill, for example, got his start in film. Norvill says she is relishing her break from the stage – 'I have loved coming into a new medium mid-career' – while acknowledging that it will inevitably call her back at some point. Before The Twelve, Norvill had only had a few small TV parts, including in Home and Away (2010), Preppers (2021) and It's Fine, I'm Fine (2022). The switch to television is proving therapeutic for Norvill, whose theatre career was at times consumed as much by what happened off stage as on it. In 2017, she reluctantly became a household name when she made a private complaint about actor Geoffrey Rush to the Sydney Theatre Company, alleging he behaved inappropriately towards her during a 2015 production of King Lear. Details of the complaint, which Rush denied, leaked to Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper. He sued the paper for defamation and was awarded $2.87 million in damages (Norvill was subpoenaed to give evidence at the trial). It's an episode she doesn't wish to relive, or discuss. However, it spurred her to join with her friend Sophie Ross to launch the not-for-profit organisation Safe Theatres Australia with the aim of highlighting sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying in the workplace, and making theatre and the arts a safe place. Norvill says the organisation 'really activated my politics and made me aware of social activism and how that has always been a big part of my life. I got that side from both of my parents, and I was really proud of that achievement. It felt impossible to do, but it was successful.' 'Being in London is allowing me to be curious about what sort of person I am and what is meaningful to me again.' Eryn Jean Norvill, actor Norvill has since stepped back from the day-to-day running of Safe Theatres Australia 'because I felt I needed some space from that kind of work to do some personal healing and processing'. Part of that stepping back – and moving on – has been a temporary shift to London, where she has been working through a process of finding out who she is again, making new friends and leaning into the unknown. 'I know I won't be here forever,' she says of the UK. 'Australia makes incredible art – we have a courage I don't recognise in many other places. But I didn't expect to be starting again at my age, essentially asking myself why, what for, and is it meaningful. 'I wish I was told more about this as a kid – that in this business there are lots of starts and ends, and it will never stop throughout your life.' Norvill is Zooming from the London flat she shares with Australian musician Georgia Mooney (from Sydney outfit All Our Exes Live in Texas), the pair on a similar journey of seeing what might come their way. She is also dog-sitting, spinning her camera to show me a curled-up ball of fur by her side. 'We have a piano in the home and Georgia plays it a lot,' Norvill adds. 'And we go to a lot of gigs together.' Born in Sydney, Norvill recalls her teen years in Malabar, a seaside suburb in Sydney's south-east, including snorkelling at nearby Long Bay, where the MV Malabar was shipwrecked in 1931. 'I'd find pieces of crockery that belonged to the ship all the time,' she says. Unlike the gentrified suburb it is today, the Malabar of Norvill's childhood had a grittiness she holds dear. 'There's a sewage works, a rifle range, the beach, a golf course, cliffs and Long Bay Jail. The inmates would run a nursery every year, and we'd buy trees and play soccer with them.' Her mother, Anita, taught child studies at TAFE, while her dad, Greg, was a marathon runner and engineer who also turned his hand to home renovation. She has an older brother, Ben, with both siblings equally drawn to the arts. 'Ben plays the five-string bass,' says Norvill. 'He is annoyingly talented and loves prog-rock.' Despite growing up in Sydney, Norvill graduated from Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts and built her name starring in productions for both the Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company, including The Picture of Dorian Gray (before Sarah Snook took over the role), Three Sisters, All My Sons, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Prior to the defamation saga, Norvill had co-written, co-directed and starred in Niche with her best friend Emily Tomlins, the sci-fi thriller garnering rave reviews for their company, Elbow Room. 'I am lucky to have my long-time collaborator and friend Emily with me in life,' Norvill says. 'We have always made things together, and Niche is something we spent five years creating. It was incredibly vulnerable and hard; a hyper-feminist piece in which I grew up a lot and got to trust myself as a female maker.' Trusting other female makers is a large part of what drew Norvill to The Twelve. Still, arriving at a career juncture like this comes with plenty of self-doubt and big questions, but Norvill is learning to trust the process. The Twelve has helped her see things differently, too. 'I am actually glad that I am at the point in my life where I have to start again,' she says. 'I think it's because I have had a lot of stop-starts in my career.' In 2019, Norvill went with her brother Ben to Download Festival in Sydney to see UK heavy metal band Judas Priest perform. 'Everyone I met there was so sweet and gentle,' she says. 'I had beautiful conversations, which I haven't had at a festival before. I felt like I got a warm hug from the crowd that day. Who would have thought a metal crowd is where I'd be?' Loading Norvill's curiosity for life has seen her dabble in drawing cartoons, which she does to relax and distract herself from acting. 'Being in London is allowing me to be curious about what sort of person I am and what is meaningful to me again,' she says. 'Finding out what I'm like at 40 feels weird, but I'm reminded that I'm lucky to have deep friendships, a moral circumference, good taste and boundaries – because these people in my life reflect that back in me.'

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