Latest news with #JoannaVanderham
Daily Mail
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Outrageous: This Downton Abbey with added fascism is frightfully unconvincing
How odd that no one can do a 1930s BBC accent any more. Any performer who attempts it sounds like Mr Cholmondley-Warner, the plummy twit from Harry Enfield's sketch show. The pre-war radio announcements in Outrageous sound like stilted send-ups. It's almost as though actors harbour a subconscious fear that, if they mimic those patrician tones too perfectly, people will imagine they are also imbued with the snobbish, class-ridden attitudes of the times. How frightful! Sadly, the dialogue is as unconvincing as the accents in this six-part period drama, a sort of Downton Abbey with added fascism. Beginning in 1931, and set in the gilded world of the British aristocracy, all country houses and glittering debutante dances, it's the story of the six ultra-privileged Mitford sisters. Joanna Vanderham plays the most famous of them, socialite Diana, who dumps her fabulously rich husband Brian Guinness to run off with the leader of the Blackshirts (Joshua Sasse). With the six young women, their parents and a brother, plus various chums all requiring introductions, screenwriter Sarah Williams relies on captions reminding us of their names. The producers have taken the trouble to put together a press pack for journalists, including a family tree with more than 25 names across four generations, that looks like the wiring diagram for Blackpool illuminations. Since viewers don't have that cribsheet, the characters constantly have to tell each other who they are. At one cocktail party, man-with-toothbrush-moustache approaches woman-with-tiara-glued-to-her-forehead and announces: 'Mrs Guinness? Oswald Mosley. Everyone calls me Tom.' Sadly, the dialogue is as unconvincing as the accents in this six-part period drama, a sort of Downton Abbey with added fascism Beginning in 1931, and set in the gilded world of the British aristocracy, all country houses and glittering debutante dances, it's the story of the six ultra-privileged Mitford sisters She blushes and demurs: 'I don't think we've been . . .' 'Introduced?' he adds helpfully. A voiceover is supplied by the oldest of the sisters, Nancy (Bessie Carter), who was a comic novelist with an acid turn of phrase — a sort of P.G. Wodehouse with a nasty streak. The real Nancy M. would have been mortified to have leaden lines like this foisted on her: 'This was the calm before the storm but, in a few short years, all hell would indeed break loose, and not just for my family but for the world.' If you're happy just to watch for the sumptuous sets and fabulous costumes, the sheer look of the thing does go some way to redeem this show. Turn the sound down and you could almost be seeing outtakes from Brideshead. But it's impossible to believe in this 21st-century version of the Mitfords. Vanderham in particular seems desperate to hold her character at arm's length, as though she's ashamed of playing the part. And Nancy's reluctant boyfriend, Hamish Erskine (James Musgrave) was once described as, 'like a kingfisher — all colour and sparkle and courage'. All we get is an insipid campness, like Mr Humphries fending off the attentions of Miss Brahms on Are You Being Served? 'Ground floor: perfumerie, stationery, Nazi salutes . . . going up!'
Daily Mirror
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Outrageous star had ‘mental block' delivering her ‘offensive' dialogue
Actress Joanna Vanderham admits she had difficulty wrapping her head around her character's fascist views in the new period drama, Outrageous Outrageous star Joanna Vanderham admits she was uncomfortable with some of the dialogue she had to say as historical fascist figure Diana Mitford in the new series. U and U&Drama's six-part period drama reveals more about the life of iconic author Nancy Mitford (played by Bessie Carter) and her five sisters. In the 1930s, with war looming and women struggling to find a place in society outside the home, the Mitfords stood out as rebels and pioneers amongst their aristocratic peers. However, their rise to notoriety threatened to fracture the family as both Diana and their younger sister Unity (Shannon Watson) began to associate with British Fascists and Nazis. Reach caught up with Vanderham at Outrageous' London premiere and asked if she found the role of a notable Nazi sympathiser challenging. 'Absolutely,' she said. 'Diana has a couple of lines that refer to what was happening at the time, and I personally found them quite difficult to deliver. 'I'm usually really quick to learn lines, they go in in an instant. But, for some reason, there was like a mental block of, 'I don't want to say this!' 'So some of those political lines, those were hard to say.' Written by Sarah Williams, this new period drama is a must-watch for fans of Downton Abbey, but be warned - it's a historical series like no other. Outrageous takes an unflinching look at the role of British aristocrats in the years leading up to the Second World War, proving not everyone was on the right side of history. Viewers will also get to know one of the most infamous wealthy families of the 20th Century better than ever before. 'What's so remarkable about Sarah's writing is so much of it is about what's between the lines and what's unsaid, the subtext of it,' Vanderham added. 'Which a) I think is really British, but b) when you have a family, you can have those silent communications and the little nods that's sort of like, 'Go on, do it', 'Go on, say it', 'Oh my God! You're not going to say that!' And it's just all silent. 'That's what lends itself to the fact that this was a real family and we were just really lucky to get to spend time together beforehand to really create that camaraderie.' The riveting new series is now streaming completely for free, so there's no excuse not to get totally scandalised by this shocking corner of history. Outrageous is available to stream on U, U&Drama and Britbox.
Times
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Outrageous review — fun and political games with 1930s poshos the Mitfords
'Mosley all back on, then?' Bessie Carter's Nancy asks her sister Diana (Joanna Vanderham) over what seems to be the gazillionth slug of drawing room tea in Outrageous (U&Drama), Sarah Williams's six-part adaptation of Mary Lovell's biographical study The Mitford Girls. 'Can't quite stomach all that Blackshirt thing,' Nancy adds. 'All that marching about and saluting the leader.' It's slightly surprising that, for all our continued fascination with this eccentric, privileged family, the small screen hasn't so far delivered a truly memorable account of their antics, nor indeed a truly compelling dramatisation of Nancy's own brilliant books (the BBC's 2001 stab at Love in a Cold Climate and its 2021 take on The Pursuit of Love were just about OK). But, dash and bother, here they are again with all their nursery room nicknames and skittish chatter about the politics of 1930s Europe and … well, it was much better than I was expecting.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
JOANNA VANDERHAM on playing Diana Mosley, ‘the most hated woman in England' in the hotly anticipated TV drama about the colourful lives of the Mitford sisters
Actress Joanna Vanderham is describing the early negotiations of her wedding to fiancé Ben Hudson Mclldowie, better known as the singer, songwriter and music producer Mr Hudson. Her future husband's hits have included the top ten banger Supernova, featuring Kanye West, and he's worked with artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and John Legend. 'We're debating do we have a showbiz wedding or do we have immediate family and friends. Ben's leaning more towards showbiz. He's more of a diva than I am. I just imagine my family and dearest friends with all of his famous friends.' Vanderham smiles. 'It'll be very fun.' Planned for next summer in the Cotswolds, the celebrations look set to cap an extraordinary year for the Scots-born Vanderham, 34, who has been a regular on our screens since she was a teenager, starring in everything from BBC period drama The Paradise, in which she played determined shop-girl Denise, to BritBox/ITVX series Crime, playing DS Amanda Drummond. There has also been a string of lauded stage appearances in such parts as Desdemona in Othello and Lady Anne in Richard III. Now her role as Lady Diana Mosley in Outrageous is expected to become this summer's hottest talking point. The six-part BritBox/UKTV drama is based on The Mitford Girls, Mary S Lovell's 2001 book about the six aristocratic Mitford sisters, who regularly scandalised the nation in the 1930s. The stirs they caused were less about their high-society flirtations (even if the youngest sister, Debo, did marry a man who became the Duke of Devonshire) and more about their politics. The fifth sister Jessica, a Communist, ran away to Spain to fight the fascists; sister four, Unity, became a close friend of Adolf Hitler. Vanderham plays sister three, Diana, an acclaimed beauty who left her first, highly eligible, husband Bryan Guinness for Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. They married at the Berlin home of Nazi chief propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, with Hitler as guest of honour. Diana became a vocal cheerleader for fascism, continuing to express her admiration for Hitler until her death in 2003, which led to her being dubbed 'the most hated woman in England'. 'When filming finished, I had to shed Diana in a really profound way,' Vanderham says in her light Scottish accent, very different to Diana's cut-glass tones. 'My little sister teaches scuba diving, so I went to visit her in Sardinia and she taught me. Being underwater I thought, 'Well, I'm certainly not Diana now.' Certain lines of hers I found really difficult to deliver. Usually I can learn lines in about three minutes, but these just wouldn't stay in my head. The process required to think her thoughts was so scary – for example, about how Germany should deal with the Jewish people. It felt very dangerous.' Vanderham brilliantly shows how Diana walked away from a seemingly perfect life because of her infatuation with Mosley. Did she espouse her vile views to please her lover, or because she genuinely believed them? 'She was addicted to him, and when she set her mind on something she was never going to change it, so that set her future in motion. But I think as their relationship developed past the passion and the lust, she became fascinated by power. I think she saw what was happening in Germany and thought, 'I can have some of that.' I'd hate people to think the show is glamorising fascism in any way. It's actually a cautionary tale of how people you don't expect can be radicalised. Anyone is vulnerable.' Indeed, for all its glorious period costumes, at times Outrageous is almost spookily contemporary in its account of the far right's rise in Europe. The Mitfords are torn apart by Unity and Diana's behaviour, with Diana heartbroken as she becomes estranged from her adored older sister, the novelist Nancy. 'So many families where members have views at different ends of the political spectrum are going through this right now,' says Vanderham. 'It's history repeating itself.' Sitting in a West London studio for the YOU photographic shoot, Vanderham is fantastic company: intelligent and fizzy, with a mischievous glint in her pale blue eyes. Tall (she's 5ft 7in but has a few inches added on by the Prada heeled loafers she found in a vintage shop), wearing black trousers and a black vest, her high cheekbones are set off by a flattering pixie crop. She cut her hair recently after finishing an acclaimed run at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre playing alcoholic, ageing southern belle Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. 'I finished the show, but when I got into bed all Blanche's hair was around my face and I felt she was still with me. She's so traumatised, she had to go! If I need long hair for a part, there are always wigs.' Vanderham's father is a Dutch businessman, while her mother is professor of vascular medicine at the University of Dundee. They divorced when she was 11 but she remains close to both. With her older brother and sister and one younger sister, she grew up in the small town of Scone in Perthshire. 'I was the show-off. My little sister once told me I always talked over her and never let her speak. If she'd say something I'd repeat it but louder. So, in the past six years or so, since we're considered grown-ups, I've tried to consciously make more space for her.' In the holidays, Vanderham attended National Youth Theatre camps in London, where she became friends with a fellow classmate, a budding songwriter called Ed Sheeran. 'We were about 16 and he was incredibly talented even then. He had his guitar with him and, as we walked from our halls of residence to the Barbican Centre he'd make up a song about whoever he was walking with that morning. One was about me!' she laughs. Sadly, she doesn't remember the lyrics. 'I'd watch him busking or playing in a pub to one person and be like, 'Go, Ed!'' Yet they've lost touch. 'When someone becomes very famous you're wary of being like, 'Remember me?' Maybe I should reach out.'' While friends from her private secondary school all went to university, Vanderham – aged just 17 – headed to the Royal Welsh College of Drama in Cardiff. Her high-achieving family were worried. 'My older brother and sister were both studying to be doctors and I overheard Dad say to them, 'Shall we open a bank account and put in £5 whenever we can, so when Jo needs to do a shift of bar work or waiting tables, she's got some back up?' My mum made me promise if I hadn't made it by 28, I'd find something else to do.' That never happened. In her second year at college, Vanderham won the leading role in Sky drama The Runaway, earning herself an International Emmy Awards nomination. It was tempting to jack in drama school, but her friend and fellow Scot Alan Cumming, a co-star on the show, persuaded her to return for the third year. 'He said, 'You'll always regret it if you don't', and he was so right because going back and doing five plays back to back in my final year meant I now feel completely at home on stage. I'm so grateful to him for that.' After graduating and The Paradise, in 2013 Vanderham was cast in veteran screenwriter and director Stephen Poliakoff's BBC drama Dancing On The Edge. He'd written a sex scene where Vanderham was to appear nude but she insisted on being covered up – an impressive stance for a young actress. 'Naivety helped, I really didn't know what a big deal Stephen was. But I knew these images would be out there on the internet for ever and I didn't want to have someone print out a picture they'd freeze-frame of me in a slightly compromising position and ask me to sign it.' There were two months of negotiations before Poliakoff agreed she could wear a vintage negligee. 'Afterwards, Stephen came up to me and said, 'God, that was very convincing.' I thought, 'Yes, because that's acting.' We've stayed really good friends and he was a bit of a mentor to me.' For all her adult life, Vanderham has been based in Hackney, East London. 'I love Scotland but I feel I'm more of a Londoner. I can't handle the cold and I'm vegan!' she says. She lives with her rescue American cocker spaniel puppy Tippi, named after actress and Alfred Hitchcock muse Tippi Hedren, who Vanderham played on stage in Double Feature. And, of course, with McIldowie, 45. The couple have been together eight years since a friend set them up. Two years ago, he proposed in characteristically creative fashion while they were on a weekend break in Brighton. He texted Vanderham as she was relaxing in the spa after a massage, asking her to come to their room. 'I just wanted to relax, so I turned up in my dressing gown, with oil in my hair from the massage, really grumpy. Ben's primarily a songwriter and producer but sometimes he acts, so he said he'd been sent a script for an audition and could I go through it with him.' While scoffing a croissant ('I was covered in crumbs'), Vanderham started reading aloud the stage directions, which included him getting down on one knee to tie his shoelaces. 'He kept reading the script and there were all these stories about our life together and our families, little private jokes we have. I looked at him and said, 'Is this real?' He went, 'Darling, acting is real.' I didn't want to be one of those people who think they're being proposed to, so even when he gave me a ring box, I thought maybe he bought an empty box from the hotel gift shop as a prop. But then I opened it and started crying. I turned the next page and the stage direction said my character was ugly crying. He knows me so well. It was really thoughtful and adorable.' The couple clearly lead a glamorous life: when Vanderham's not working (a rare occasion), she is a regular on the front row at London Fashion Week shows such as Bora Aksu and Huishan Zhang. Close friends include the likes of the Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears. 'We're hoping he'll sing at the wedding.' For now, Vanderham is anticipating a second season of Outrageous will be commissioned – the first stops before the outbreak of the Second World War when the Mosleys were interned for their Nazi sympathies. While awaiting the green light, she's busy writing a play and producing several of her own projects. Plus, there's that wedding to plan. Is she a bridezilla? 'No, Ben's more of a groomzilla. I don't think we need a cake – no one eats it – and we don't need loads of flowers, that's an antiquated thing from the days when people didn't wash. But there's no rush to get married. I love the word fiancé, it's so sexy. This is such a sweet part of life to be in.' Outrageous will be streaming on U and U&Drama (Freeview/Freely channel 20) from Thursday JOANNA AT A GLANCE Idea of holiday hell Somewhere cold: the Icehotel. Go-to karaoke song I Got You Babe. You have to duet it and my fiancé is the right person for that. Spotify song of last year Tilted by Christine and the Queens. I played it every night before I went on stage to play Blanche DuBois as it gave me an insight into how she felt about the world. Last thing you took a photo of and sent to someone My puppy. Movie that makes you cry Practical Magic. It's really a fun film about witches, but it's about people coming back from the dead and I watched it just after my old dog died. I couldn't stop crying. Are you a cat or a dog? I'd be a cat, but my fiancé is more of a dog. He's friendly to everyone while I'm more, 'Oh no, do I want you to be my friend?' Most memorable conversation When I was in the film What Maisie Knew with Julianne Moore, she told me, 'Never have a problem without bringing a solution.' She wouldn't say, 'I don't like that light,' she'd say, 'How about we do it like this?' I've tried to bring that to my career ever since. Favourite beauty product I love Skinceuticals' Emollience cream. Are you superstitious? I'm so superstitious. I salute magpies, I don't walk under ladders. I don't say 'Macbeth' in a theatre. I really try not to smash mirrors. Favourite breakfast My go-to is peanut-butter toast. Website you spend too much time on My puppy-training app. Favourite swear word It's Scottish: 'fannyballs'. It means idiot – it's not very offensive. 'Stop being a fannyballs!' Picture director: Ester Malloy. Stylist: Ursula Lake. Hair: Federico Ghezzi using Bumble and Bumble.
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Queen Mum and a very chilly view of the Mitford Girls: EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE
The unsubstantiated claim by Elon Musk that Donald Trump is named in the 'Epstein Files' is not good news for Prince Andrew. The notorious paedophile's ghost continues to haunt him. He has gradually rehabilitated himself within the family – William and Kate excepted. As we have noted, the King is inclined to believe that Andrew is innocent of the more lurid allegations laid against him. But if there are further revelations regarding Andrew-Epstein it would jeopardise the fragile peace he has built with the Royal Family. If Andrew could sweat would he be perspiring now? David Beckham 's biographer Tom Bower fails to send congrats on his expected knighthood. He still nurses a grievance after Becks failed to express gratitude when Bower unearthed a windfall. 'I discovered that Beckham was owed £9million by the German tax authorities because his accountant had forgotten to claim it,' Bower claims. 'So I told his PR woman and he got £9million thanks to me. But he hasn't said thank you!' UKTV's Mitford sisters saga, Outrageous, which starts next week and stars Joanna Vanderham as jack-booted Diana M, would not have appealed to the late Queen Mother. She declined an invitation in 1981 to a musical about the six Mitford girls at London 's Globe theatre, telling its author, Ned Sherrin: 'Oh no, I've met them all in real life. I don't think I need to see them on stage.' Gordon Ramsay's mother, Helen, remains unimpressed with her son's trappings of success after being flown to Los Angeles to stay at his luxury hilltop mansion. 'I'm just wondering... the neighbours?' she asked Gordon. 'I said, 'What's wrong with them?' She said, 'No one's got their washing out'.' Thirty years after starring in Mike Leigh's Secrets And Lies, Phyllis Logan takes a dig at the filmmaker. 'With Mike you don't have a script whatsoever,' she tells Radio Times. 'You make it up yourself, which would imply that you are one of the writers. But, of course, nobody ever gets a credit for that in any of his films!' Heartthrob (rtd) Paul Nicholas recalls an odd meeting with the Princess Royal when playing Claude in the original West End production of the nude review Hair. 'Part of the show includes a scene where the audience was invited to join the cast onstage,' he says. 'One night, I noticed Princess Anne was standing right next to me. She came a few times actually.' Much smirking in Paris after Donald Trump, who mocked the Macrons for their plane bust-up last month('Better make sure the door's closed next time'), was filmed almost falling down his own plane's stairs. 'Make sure you grip the handrail properly next time,' chuckles one French radio commentator.
