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Geek Girl Authority
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
OUTRAGEOUS Recap: (S01E04) Episode 4
One by one, the Mitford girls grow up, nurtured in the same home, yet all choosing vastly different paths. As noted before in Outrageous , it's remarkable how different those paths turned out to be. In Outrageous Episode 4, Unity (Shannon Watson) provides Diana (Joanna Vanderham) with a way to secure her place at Mosley's (Joshua Sasse) side while the rest of the family remains stunned by the two women's fascist allegiances. RELATED: Catch up with our recap of Outrageous Episode 3 Nancy's (Bessie Carter) domestic situation improves somewhat in Outrageous Episode 4. Jessica (Zoe Brough) comes out in society to mixed results. Meanwhile, financial troubles continue to plague the older Mitfords. The only family members who seem content at all are the blissfully idealistic Deborah (Orla Hill) and the takes-care-of-herself Pamela (Isobel Jesper Jones). But they land in a strange threesome by weird happenstance. Never a dull moment, indeed, when life is this outrageous. Photo Credit: Sally Mais/Courtesy of BritBox – Outrageous Outrageous, Episode 4 It's January 1935, and Farve (James Purefoy) is teaching Deborah how to drive while Jessica reads a book in a tree. Nancy's voiceover explains that because Farve taught all his children to drive, it afforded his daughters a measure of independence many women of the time didn't have. Jessica is about to come out into society. Deborah would do the same in two years' time. In the Fortress, Muv (Anna Chancellor) reads a letter intently. Nancy comes down the stairs and asks if everything's all right. Muv tells her it isn't really, never looking up from the letter. When Farve, Jessica, and Deborah arrive, she hands the letter to Farve. RELATED: My Lady Jane : Rob Brydon and Anna Chancellor Spill Their Parenting Secrets At the dining table, Farve reads the letter to the family. It's Unity's account of meeting Hitler (Paul Giddings). The family listens in disbelief. The reading segues into Unity's voice, the scene shifting to her riding a bicycle in Munich. She returns to her school, where Diana's waiting for her. They embrace. Unity's ecstatic about meeting and talking with Hitler. She insists that Diana needs to meet him, too. Family Matters Back at the Fortress, Nancy meets with the rest of the sisters, wondering why Hitler would single out Unity in a restaurant full of people. Pamela shares that Diana drove the car Mosley bought her to see Unity in Munich. When asked about their falling out, Nancy insists they'll reconcile when Diana cools off. Jessica, poring over Unity's letter, concludes that persistence works. At bedtime, Farve wonders aloud what Hitler wants with Unity. Muv tries to brush it off as a one-time occurrence. She then asks him why he'd been to see the estate agent. He reveals that someone is interested in renting the Fortress for six months. They argue about the state of finances and the family. Muv goes to sleep after insisting that Farve discuss the big decisions with her before making them. February 1935 Nancy returns to her mostly empty home. Peter's (Jamie Blackley) whistling in the dining room. He greets her as he polishes his shoes, explaining that he's starting a new job. He apologizes for how things went before she left. Mary (Ruby Thomas) and Tony saw the house after the bailiffs had repossessed their furniture and told Peter he needed to make things right. Tony helped him get a new job. RELATED: Hair and Makeup Artist Jacquetta Levon Talks Incorporating Reality and Fantasy for The Serpent Queen In Munich, Unity can't wait to introduce Diana to Hitler. She asks if Diana's told Mosley that she's going to meet him, and Diana reveals that Mosley's resumed his affair with his late wife's sister. Unity sympathizes. Diana excuses the behavior, calling it a compulsion he can't control. Because the other woman knows nothing about politics, Diana believes that if she can secure him a meeting with Hitler, Mosley will see her as an indispensable asset. Becoming a Woman: Decca March 1935: A black and white newsreel shows the line of cars waiting to bring their daughters to Buckingham Palace for presentation at court. Muv, Nancy, and Jessica are photographed for the occasion. The photographer (Tristan Beint) is having a hard time getting a good picture of Jessica as she refuses to smile. She's incensed at the meaninglessness of the ceremony and rages at the idea of hundreds of girls being herded in to be judged and married off. Muv argues that being presented at court is the beginning of her social life, and how incredibly important it is to meet and mingle and make connections. When Nancy reads in the newspaper that Esmond Romilly (Joseph Potter) has been sent to prison, it captures Jessica's attention. He was incarcerated for showing up drunk at his parents' house. His mother called the police on him. Her testimony to the judge the next day netted Esmond a six-month sentence in a juvenile home. Nancy reports that Romilly is unrepentant and plans to use the time to further his revolutionary studies. This delights Jessica, who smiles widely, and the photographer quickly snaps a picture, then dismisses the women with relief. Becoming a Woman: Debo Out on the family's land, Deborah's out riding when Derek Jackson (Jack Michael Stacey) rides up beside her and introduces himself. He went to school with her brother, Tom (Toby Regbo). They talk a bit. Derek reveals that he's a jockey, having ridden in the Grand National, but works as an atomic physicist at Oxford. They develop an easy rapport. Deborah is quite impressed with him. RELATED: Filmmaker Charley Feldman Is Truly Outrageous June 1935 At Diana's residence, Mosley lies with his head in her lap. She tells him she secured him a face-to-face meeting with Hitler. He's initially excited but quickly becomes jealous when she mentions that Hitler invited her to the opera in Berlin. She points out that he spends time with people she'd prefer he didn't, so it's tit for tat. July 1935 Nancy's book, Wigs on the Green , comes out in print. She and Peter celebrate with Mary and Tony in their garden because she didn't want a big party over a book that has caused a rift between her and Diana. They toast their friendship. At the Fortress, Deborah tries on lipstick and puts her hair up. Pamela finds her and warns her that Farve will not be happy to see her looking so grown up. Deborah tells her she's going fishing with Derek and invites her to come along because he's expressed interest in meeting Pamela, the 'least bonkers' of her sisters. The three of them walk out to a trout stream for a picnic. Their banter has an edge to it. Derek has opinions. Pamela disagrees with those opinions. Deborah points out that Derek expresses his opinions no matter what and doesn't care that it makes him sound arrogant. RELATED: 15 Song Covers We Want to Hear on Bridgerton In a cinema, Jessica watches a newsreel reporting that Goebbels is reintroducing conscription in Germany, in contravention of the Versailles Treaty. She is visibly upset by the images she sees. In Germany, a young SS officer shows Unity where Hitler lives. He tells her that Hitler's at home today and spending time with Eva Braun. Unity's shocked that he would have a relationship with someone who has no understanding of Germany's politics. The officer tries to flirt, but Unity is oblivious, completely focused on learning about Hitler's personal life. He says they should go and heads off. She catches up and affectionately grabs his arm, asking him to help her write a letter in German to the newspaper, Der Stürmer . To convince him to help her, she kisses him. He kisses her back. The Letter Her letter begins: Der Stürmer, I am a British woman fascist who has lived in Munich for several months. I should like to express my admiration for Germany's approach to the Jewish Problem. Unfortunately, the English have no notion of the danger… In the Fortress, the phone rings. Muv answers and gestures to a servant to bring her a newspaper. The headline reads, 'ENGLISHWOMAN ATTACKS JEWS.' After hanging up on the caller, the phone immediately rings again. Muv opens the paper and sees a picture of Unity with Hitler and a headline declaring her to be an avid supporter. RELATED: TV Review: The Serpent Queen Season 2 Outside the House of Lords, Farve is beset by reporters wanting him to respond to Unity's letter. Muv calls Unity and demands she return home immediately. Every newspaper carries the story. Jessica, Deborah, and Nancy all read about Unity, Britain's most hated woman. Unity's Return Upon her arrival home, Unity declares that she doesn't care what people think and she refuses to apologize for writing the letter. While Farve is lecturing her in his study, Nancy arrives. Unity storms out of the study, grabs her bag, and heads to stay with Diana. Muv and Farve are at a loss for how to deal with the situation. Nancy finds Jessica curled up in the bedding closet with Esmond's book, crying and confused about why Unity wrote the letter. Nancy tries to comfort her. Pamela joins them. She describes her visit with Unity a few weeks previous in Munich, where they dined with Hitler. Pamela found him to be very ordinary. She tells them that he finds Unity enchanting, that Unity behaves perfectly naturally with him, her love for him an obvious thing. RELATED: Read our My Lady Jane recaps Jessica proposes that she get Unity to introduce her to Hitler, too, so that she can kill him. Nancy and Pamela discourage this plan. Jessica feels hopeless, wondering if she can keep loving Unity despite the horrible things she's said and written. Pamela suggests they don't get a say on whether they love their sisters. Nancy considers these words deeply. Peace Talks On her way out, Nancy offers to try talking to Diana and Unity. Muv wonders if that'll do any good considering the tension between them. Muv thanks her for the effort, warning her to tread softly. The conversation doesn't go well. Unity refuses to see Nancy. Nancy apologizes again for offending them with the book. She tells Diana that the sales have been poor and the reviews indifferent. Diana rushes her out the door, saying she has a dinner party to attend and needs to pack because she's driving to Mosley's straight afterward. Nancy asks her on Muv's behalf if she would speak to Unity about the letter. Diana refuses. Nancy loses her temper and accuses Diana of condoning the things Unity wrote in the letter. Diana defends Unity's right to her own opinions. They descend into a shouting match. Diana throws Nancy out in a fit of rage. As Nancy strides away from the house, Diana pours herself a drink. RELATED: Read our Outrageous recaps Nancy walks to Joss's (Will Attenborough) and talks him into going out for a drink with her. At the club, she talks out the issues with her sisters. Joss offers her a perspective on the slippery slope of power. He tells her about his grandparents who immigrated to England from Ukraine. They had to hide any signs of being Jewish in order to provide their children and grandchildren a sense of belonging and safety. Consequences Elsewhere, Diana swans out of the dinner party. She gets in her car and drives off. Nancy's voiceover: Did I go too far in accusing her of being Mosley's mouthpiece? Possibly. Should I have been able to keep my cool when provoked? Probably. And was it my fault she was so upset that night that she drank a lot more champagne than she should have? A car smashes into Diana's. Definitely. In the aftermath, officers pull Diana's bloody and glass-ridden body from the driver's seat. They lie her by the side of the road, rolling her onto her side, where she takes a single labored breath. Outrageous streams on BritBox, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday. New Release Radar: New Books Coming Out on July 1 Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
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.
