A Very British Scandal

A lot of money has been spent on this - with great locations, lavish sets and fine acting. But ultimately it's pretty boring. Unpleasant posh lady marries unpleasant posh man and they spend three episodes being unpleasant to each other. Neither character has any redeeming qualities, there is little insight into those characters, and when it comes to the big court scene at the end it's really neither here nor there who wins.

A visual feast. A snooze of a story that didn't really merit a three part series.

I'd like to know two things:

1) why didn't her father (or she) sue the Duke for all the money?

2) how many affairs did the Judge have before and after the trial?

Wanted to like this as I've enjoyed the writer's Agatha Christie adaptations in recent years and I'm a big fan of both Claire Foy and Paul Bettany. The acting and cast were very good but for me the story would have worked better if an older actress had played the Duchess (She was in her 50's at time of the trial.)

It was stylish all round, well written and fashionably directed and photographed, soundtrack was a bit patchy with some anachronistic tunes.

My main problem was that both characters were entitled dislikeable aristocrats, he was obviously a rotter, but she wasn't much better. In the end I wasn't that bothered what happened to either of them, so for me a slightly disappointed 6/10.

Perhaps its time to put the British Aristocracy back in the cupboard and tell some new and untold original stories about ordinary Britain's past and present. Brideshead still gets revisited a little too often.

This is an interesting, if not quite worthy successor to the infinitely superior A Very English Scandal. The problem here is that the writers clearly decided to make Margaret, the Duchess, the more sympathetic character - one supposes so the audience would have someone to root for, but also clearly in order to create a narrative around the way women were demonised for their sexuality in more repressive times. While this is certainly a valid perspective, it has the effect of short-changing us on the scandal front. In truth, the Duchess was a nasty piece of work, and every bit as bad, if not worse, than the loathsome Duke. But this TV version of events only touches lightly on some of the more appalling things she did, like trying to have her step-sons disinherited, and faking a pregnancy (while attempting to buy a baby) to establish a rival claim to the estate and title. The real Margaret was thoroughly spoilt, vacuous and self-absorbed, and Claire Foy's generous portrayal of her really doesn't do justice to the woman's monstrosity. And if the object here is to dissect a celebrated scandal, why not go all the way? The series is worth watching for the performances, and as a potted history to the Argyll affair, but if you want the full story you'll need to do some further reading.

Margaret, sometime Duchess of Argyll, was a rich, beautiful, and utterly entitled woman; her marriage to the Duke, a spendthrift drunk, was a disaster. We know about it because their divorce became a matter of media scandal and was even brought into the enquiry that followed the Profumo affair. The way our society shamed (and continues to shame) women for their sexuality is appalling; nonetheless, it is hard to avoid concluding that someone who beleives in their absolute right to do as they please is ultimately going to face consequences (even if, in a decent world, these would have been entirely private). As Duke and Duchess, Paul Bettany and Clare Foy are both really good in this reconstuction of events; although the theme of the story is essentially that it's a matter of public interest that something of no legitimate public interest was treated as if this was not the case. Amazingly, wholly no-fault divorce is only going to become a reality in British law in 2022.