TV, FILM & RADIO

Grace under pressure

A Very British Scandal / BBC One, December

It was a divorce that gripped the attention of much of the nation. In 1963, having found compromising pictures of his wife, the famed socialite Margaret Campbell (née Whigham), Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll went to court to end his third marriage.

Before long, Margaret’s name would be dragged through the mud amidst lurid tales of law-breaking, violence, drug-taking and infidelity. One explicit image in particular, obtained by the duke when he employed a locksmith to break into a cupboard in the couple’s Mayfair home, became notorious. In court, presiding judge Lord Wheatley described Margaret as “a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied with a number of men”.

But how fair was this assessment? Scriptwriter Sarah) has long been fascinated with the couple’s divorce and sees Margaret in different terms. When , made by the same production company behind the award-winning , was announced, she said the story had been a “passion project” for her since 1993. “I felt very strongly that [Margaret had] been punished for being a woman, for being visible, for refusing to back down, be a good girl and go quietly,” Phelps noted. “This drama is my tribute to her.”