The Facts Behind the Ugly Divorce Battle in ‘A Very British Scandal’
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans EditorAmazon Prime’s three-part series “A Very British Scandal” dramatizes one of the most scandalous divorce cases in British history, between the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, in which the Duke (Ian, played by Paul Bettany) accuses Margaret (Claire Foy) of sleeping with more than 88 other men during their marriage.Judge Lord Wheatley, who presided over the case, blasted her as “a completely promiscuous woman” whose attitude towards marriage was “wholly immoral.”Writer and creator Sarah Phelps says she was sensitive to the fact she was penning a script about real people who had living relatives that she took into consideration. “There are strict laws about how to represent people and what impact it’s going to have on their living relatives,“ Phelps says. “But you also have a moral responsibility because you don’t want to do anything that is going to cause pain.” Phelps says the court transcripts from the 1963 divorce hearing were key to her research and the script.
She took the transcripts, extrapolating the detail and working backward from there. With that, much of the series stayed true to real-life events.
Phelps highlights some key components in telling the story and what really happened to the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.Fact: The Duke really did find compromising photos of the duchess (Ep.
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