Victorian Scandals – Nostalgia Central

1 9 7 6 (UK)
7 x 55 minute episodes

This seven-part series from Granada Television featured dramatised versions of outrageous true stories that had shocked mainstream Victorian society in Britain.

‘The Frontiers of Science’ featured famous Victorian scientist William Crookes (Ronald Hines) investigating the claimed abilities of self-proclaimed spiritualist mediums Florence Cook (model-turned-entertainer Twiggy in her television acting debut) and Daniel Dunglass Home (Lewis Fiander).

‘Skittles’ told the story of Catherine “Skittles” Walters (Maureen O’Brien), a notorious Victorian courtesan. Born in a Liverpool slum, by her early 20s, SKittles had the wealthiest men in England and France prepared to fight over her, with the young poet Wilfred Blunt (John Moulder-Brown) ready to die for her.

‘The Portland Millions’ had humble Annie Druce (Patricia Hayes, pictured) claiming she was the heir to the Duke of Portland. 34 years after the death of her father-in-law, Baker Street shopkeeper Thomas Druce, she petitioned to have his coffin opened, convinced that the coffin was full of lead and that he and the fifth Duke of Portland were in fact one and the same person.

In ‘A Pitcher of Snakes’, authors Charlotte Brontë (Kate Binchy) and William Makepeace Thackeray (Gareth Thomas) were attending a dinner hosted by Mrs Jane Brookfield (Barbara Kellermann) when the hostess’s husband, the Reverend William Brookfield (Michael Latimer), suddenly arrived unexpectedly, demanding that his wife leave and return home with him.

‘Hannah’ featured upper-middle-class scholar and photographer Arthur Munby (Robert Hardy), making a study of working-class women and secretly marrying Hannah Cullwick (Elizabeth Spriggs), who continued to pose as his servant.

‘The Fruits of Philosophy’ had an attempt to publish a pamphlet advocating birth control by women’s rights advocate and free-thinker Annie Besant (Louise Purnell) and social reformer Charles Bradlaugh (David Swift), resulting in a notorious prosecution for obscenity.

‘Beloved’ followed Henry James Prince (Peter Egan, pictured), who – after being dismissed from his post as a curate –  founded his own religion called the Abode of Love and announced himself the Son of God.

Other actors who appeared in the seven episodes included Simon Callow, Richard Wilson, John Barron, Nigel Havers, Leonard Sachs, Clifford Rose, Gillian Bailey and Rosalind Elliot.

Episodes

The Frontiers of Science | Skittles | The Portland Millions | A Pitcher of Snakes | Hannah | The Fruits of Philosophy | Beloved