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Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The wild true story of the infamous Mitford sisters comes to life
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. Loading '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. Loading 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.' Loading 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.'
The Age
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
The wild true story of the infamous Mitford sisters comes to life
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. Loading '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. Loading 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.' Loading 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.'
Scotsman
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Outrageous review: This mediocre Mitford tale fails to tell us what was so Outrageous
The lives of the aristocracy during that golden period between the wars seems to fascinate TV programme makers – all the shooting parties, the balls and the flirtation with fascism exerts a strange fascination. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Watching Outrageous (U&Drama, Thurs, 9pm), however, you can't really see why. It's the story of the Mitford sisters, the famous – or infamous – sibling sorority that apparently took London society and the landed gentry by storm during the 1930s. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Each of the six sisters had some sort of celebrity: Nancy was a novelist, famed for The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate; Diana was a famed beauty who left her fabulously wealthy husband for the country's leading far-right demagogue Oswald Mosley; Pamela was a noted horsewoman and fond of driving sports cars; Unity fell in love with Adolf Hitler; Jessica became a communist and ran off with her cousin; and Deborah became the Duchess of Devonshire and chatelaine of Chatsworth House. The cast of Outrageous, the new drama which tells the story of the infamous Mitford sisters (Picture: UKTV) Each had a notably picaresque life – even by the standards of the bohemian aristos of the time – with scandalous divorces, trips to the Nuremberg rallies, castles in Ireland and elopements to Spain – but very little of this comes across in Outrageous. In fact, the most outrageous thing they seem to do is lounge about in silk kimonos and headscarves in the middle of the day. We're supposed to care about these privileged creatures, but we're given precious little reason to. None seem particularly charismatic, especially given dialogue which attempts to cram in great chunks of exposition and quick character sketches as we meet yet another arrogant posho. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And why should we care about them, especially Diana and Unity, who didn't so much flirt with fascism as take it to bed for a night of passion. Joanna Vanderham plays Diana Mitford in the new series Outrageous, which airs on U&Drama on Thursdays (Picture: UKTV) At times, the programme attempts to give some reason for their lurch to the far right, such as widespread economic hardship and industrial unrest, but that rarely impinges on to the sisters' lives beyond a few banners in passing. Diana is supposed to be infatuated with Mosley, but he comes across as a boring blowhard no one in their right mind would fancy, while Unity's obsession with Hitler is painted as a teenage crush. I mean, these people weren't merely outrageous, they were just horrible anti-semites. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There is a charitable reading of all this putative outrageousness – that the sisters were kicking against the limited future societal norms had planned for them, as daughters of hard-up minor aristocracy. Nancy Mitford (Bessie Carter) contemplates life in bohemian 1930s London in the new U&Drama series Outrageous (Picture: UKTV) Their mother, 'Muv' (Anna Chancellor) tells warring sisters Jessica and Unity: 'Can't you see that if you don't start behaving properly you're going to end up as penniless old maids? 'You need to start thinking of yourselves as women. As wives and housekeepers, as mothers. These are incredibly important roles. Roles you were made for. I guess faced with those constrictions, anyone with a modicum of gumption would attempt to kick over the traces. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But when financial hardship means 'letting out the London house', but still having a pied a terre in the capital, when no one seems to need a job, when you can live in varying degrees of bohemian luxury, rebellion seems unnecessary. And far from taking a stand for women, these sisters seem unhealthily defined by the men in their lives – Diana by Mosley, Unity by Hitler, even firebrand Nancy moons over some weak-chinned deadbeat called Hamish, and Outrageous can offer no earthly reason for it. If you didn't constantly refer to the internet, the average viewer – including me – would have very little clue why the Mitford clan should be so celebrated. Far from being Outrageous, this latest ode to aristocracy is mediocre and, frankly, infuriating.
Cosmopolitan
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
Who were the Mitford sisters? The unbelievable true story behind Outrageous
You've probably seen lots of people talking about the new drama series outrageous airing this week. Coming to UKTV's in the UK and BritBox in North America, the TV series tells the story of six different sisters in the 1930s, who refused to play by the rules, often resulting in betrayal, scandal, heartache, and even imprisonment. It stars Bridgerton's Bessie Carter as Nancy Mitford, the eldest of the Mitford siblings, Anna Chancellor as matriarch Sydney Bowles Mitford, James Purefoy as David Freeman-Mitford, and Joanna Vanderham as Diana Mitford, and is based on the very real, and often controversial Mitford family. During the 1930s, the six sisters attracted widespread attention for their fashionable and provocative lifestyles, as well as for their public political divisions between communism and fascism. So, who exactly were the Mitford family? Read on for everything you need to know as Outrageous airs. The Mitford family is an aristocratic British family, who became particularly well known during the 1930s due to the six Mitford sisters - daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney Bowles whom he married in 1904. Sydney was the daughter of publisher and politician Thomas Gibson Bowles, and David was the second son of Bertram, Lord Redesdale. The couple had seven children - six girls and one boy - and their family homes were Asthall Manor and Swinbrook in Oxfordshire. Played by: Bessie Carter Born 28th November 1904, Nancy was the oldest of the Mitford children. She was a writer and a keen eye observer of the upper class. She married Peter Rodd, whom she subsequently divorced, and had a longstanding relationship with French politician and statesman Gaston Palewski. Her work includes semi-biographical novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. Played by: Isobel Jesper Jones Dubbed 'woman' by her siblings, Pamela Mitford (born in 1907), married and later divorced millionaire physicist Derek Jackson. Unlike her sisters, she preferred the countryside, and spent most of the 1960s in the stables of Italy, living with the horsewoman Giuditta Tommasi. Played by: Joanna Vanderham Possibly the most scandalous of the Mitford pack, Diana (born in 1910), married aristocrat and writer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, in 1929. In 1933, she left him for British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, whom she married in 1936. Together, they had two sons, Alexander and Max Mosley. The couple was interned at Holloway Prison from May 1940 until November 1943. Played by: Shannon Watson Known as 'Bobo' or 'Boud' by her siblings, Unity's friendship with Adolf Hitler was well-publicised. She shot herself in the head after Britain declared war on Germany. She survived, but suffered permanent brain damage. She died of pneumococcal meningitis in 1948. Played by: Zoe Brough The rebel of the family, 'Decca' ran off to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War, before planting her roots in America. After losing her first husband in World War II, she reinvented herself as a passionate writer and committed communist. Her groundbreaking book, The American Way of Death, exposed the funeral industry. Played by: Orla Hill The youngest of the family, Deborah was nicknamed 'Nine' by Nancy, which was half an insult, half affection. She married the future Duke of Devonshire and lived a pretty quiet life at Chatsworth House, which she transformed into an empire. Unlike her sisters, she wasn't one for the limelight and kept out of the headlines. Played by: Toby Regbo The only son of the Mitford family, Tom was born in 1909 and studied at Eton. Here, he had an affair with James Lees-Milne. He later had a relationship with troubled dancer Tilly Losch, who was married at the time to British poet, Edward James. According to Jessica's letters, Thomas supported British fascism and was posted to the Burma campaign after he had refused to fight in Europe. He died in action. Outrageous airs on UKTV's free streaming service U and U&DRAMA on Thursday 19th June, and on BritBox in North America on 18th June.
South China Morning Post
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Meet Dominic West's daughters, Martha and Dora: their brother Senan starred as a young Prince William in The Crown – but which sister acted in The Pursuit of Love with Lily James and her dad?
It's been five years since married father of two Dominic West was pictured getting intimate with his The Pursuit of Love co-star Lily James in Rome. The paparazzi shots caused a scandal, and tabloids reported that his marriage to Catherine FitzGerald was 'as good as over'. Reflecting on the ordeal last June in an interview with The Sunday Times' Culture Magazine , West talked about how the negative headlines had impacted his family. 'I hesitate to speak on my wife's behalf because it was obviously horrible, particularly for her,' he said. 'But we do joke about it sometimes … It was an absurd situation. It was deeply stressful for my wife and my kids, but there were lighter moments. That was the best that came out of it, really.' Advertisement Dominic West celebrates his 55th birthday with his daughters Martha and Dora. Photo: Instagram Then last October, the actor was pictured celebrating his 55th birthday with his two daughters, Martha, 26, and Dora, 18. Martha, whose Instagram account is private, reportedly shared the photo of the trio on her account. In the Instagram Story, the West daughters are seen hugging their dad as they sing happy birthday to him, per the Daily Mail. Here's what we know about Dominic West's two daughters, who he seems to be on good terms with despite the scandal: How many children does Dominic West have? Dominic West has five children in total. Photo: EPA-EFE The Crown actor has five children in total. Per People magazine, he shares four children – Dora, Senan, Francis and Christabel – with his wife Catherine FitzGerald. Grazia UK notes that he also shares a daughter with ex-girlfriend Polly Astor. Dominic and FitzGerald's eldest son Senan even joined his father in season five of The Crown as a young Prince William – with no prior acting experience, per People magazine. Who is Dominic West's wife?
