The Trial of Christine Keeler

I lived through the time of the Profumo scandal, and my father was a journalist on the Daily Mirror. Even so, I would have to do some research to name some of the incidental political figures and their roles. None of the Cold War paranoia comes across, which could explain why the mere suspicion of Christine Keeler having relationships with the Minister of War and the military attaché of the Soviet Embassy caused hysteria in the corridors of power and the media. On top of that was the British government's fear of the reaction in Washington to this scandal, since the US government was already writing off the British government and intelligence establishment as a load of incompetent chinless wonders. Christine Keeler herself, if she was as ignorant of events as she is portrayed, is not the person best placed to make the situation understandable. Six hours of bewilderment will be hard to keep up with, however well acted. It's also likely to bewilder the audience, and this production lacks the dramatic tension to keep them involved.

Can just about remember the Profumo affair so was interested to see how it was treated.

Think the story is accurate as I remember it and showing it from Keeler's perspective gives some insights into its twists and turns.

On the downside, the constant flashbacks add little to the narrative other than confusion and James Norton is unbelievably wooden as Stephen Ward.

Just seen episode 5 and I would modify my view on James Norton's performance during the trial. Still think he was poor up to that point but redeems himself in this episode.

By contrast, Sophie Cookson is both totally believable and looks remarkably like the eponymous character.

His constant repetition of "little baby!" when speaking to Christine is grating and, probably, out of character even for early sixties vernacular.

Could have been much better....

Some of these reviews bewilder me. The story is well,and accurately told and beautifully acted. It really catches the spirit of the time, a time I remember.

Found it a bit dull. I loved James Norton in Happy Valley but have found him dull in the last 2 things I've seen him in. He seems to be typecast as the Posh boy now.

I thought this was a 2 or max 3 parter. I might have lived with that but they are drsgging out this borefest for 6 episodes. I just popped on wiki and read up about it now I'm done. Not interested. Sorry

Watch A Very British Scandal instead.

This six part BBC drama follows the channel's success two years before of its earlier treatment of another significant British historical/political scandal in the Houses of Parliament, the Jeremy Thorpe / Norman Scott affair. However, even as the years recede, ownership of that word scandal still belongs primarily to John Profumo, the Conservative war minister caught up in a sex scandal revolving around his involvement with the young Christine Keeler.

Conveniently, it seems, waiting until the last of the major players in this act had expired, being Ms Keeler herself in 2018, the way was clear for a pretty much no-holds barred expose of the crisis that with its accusations of sleaze at the highest levels of government arguably fatally winged Prime Minister Harold MacMillan's government of the day so that a bare year later he had resigned and the Tories 13 year long reign of power was ended by Labour under Harold Wilson.

Christine Keeler's own actual court trial for perjury doesn't occur until the final episode but the title of the series makes us aware that she herself was perpetually on trial in the public eye as she came under constant scrutiny the minute her involvement with both Profumo and Russian spy Yevgeny Ivanov came to light. Christine met both men at debauched parties convened by osteopath Stephen Ward to high society gents where he put attractive young women like her and her even younger friend Mandy Rice Davies in the way of middle aged men of wealth, title and influence.

In the aftermath of the story dragging Profumo onto the front pages of the all-powerful national press of the day, he of course lost his position, Keeler and Davies ended up in jail but not after making comparative fortunes from selling their stories to the papers and of course the main victim in the fall-out was Ward, who was effectively made society's scapegoat and firstly saw his profitable medical practice as well as his sideline work as a portrait artist collapse when his former friends in high places conveniently abandoned him. He then found himself on trial himself on trumped-up charges for living off so-called immoral earnings of Keeler and Davies. Railroaded by the police and at the mercy of a partial judge, he was bound to be found guilty prompting him to take the overdose which killed him before his verdict was inconsiderately delivered in absentia.

The direction, even though it sometimes confused with its plethora of flashbacks which sometimes disjointed the narrative, and acting throughout I thought was of a high standard by its largely well-cast ensemble, with perhaps just a few exceptions, commendably fleshing out the story. Of these, I felt that Emilia Fox as Profumo's pitiable actress wife and Neil Morrissey as Keeler's money-grabbing dad were miscast and out of their depth, while in the wider narrative I was surprised that at no stage in the story did P.M. MacMillan make an appearance.

The three main parties to the story of Keeler, Davies and Ward were excellently played by Sophie Cookson, Ellie Bamber and James Norton and even if Ben Miles didn't look much like the real Profumo, he certainly conveyed the man's privileged cake-and-eat-it hauteur, until he was caught literally with his pants down.

All in all, this seemed to me a realistic and fascinating dramatisation of a story which still resonates today and the watching of which, particularly its imbalanced treatment of the main players, still makes the blood boil today.