The Mitford sisters are on TV! New Brit Box series “Outrageous”

I'm looking forward to this; I'm guessing that a lot more brit had Hitler/Nazi sympathies/tendencies than they were later willing to admit, but to go full Nazi the way these women of privilege did - it would be interesting to better understand it

Jessica, the youngest, went full Communist.

The fascists and the communists in the family stopped speaking.

Unity and Diane were monsters.

I. Watched the first two episodes—it’s fantastic! I’ve read two books on this family. Series does great job capturing them and highly entertaining.

[quote]I wish I had BritBox.

If you have Amazon Prime, you can get a free trial of BritBox.

It has been described as Downton Abbey with added fascism.

Nazis r’ Us

Thanks, R5. I will try that out for sure.

I certainly want to watch. Bessie Carter has been great as Featherington daughter in Bridgerton, so I'm curious what else she can do.

Nancy thought Diana was such a threat to national security that she denounced her to the authorities, leading to her incarceration for most of WW2. I always liked Nancy.

Jessica may have been Communist but she was also the most progressive of any of them.

Unity’s infatuation with Hitler was nuts. Do you think he slept with her?

DL Fave James Purefoy plays the girls' "Farve". Joshua Sasse is Oswald Mosely. Toby Rigbo plays the twink brother Tom.

Thank you for letting us know about this, OP.

I love Bessie Carter…great actor

I might subscribe just for this. I find the Mitford sisters fascinating

I think I pay 11.99/month for my Britbox and $6.99 for my Acorn subscriptions. Well worth it for both OP.

It helped that the Mitford sisters had MONEY& very good connections in British High Society.

Most of that family was nuts!!!

[quote]The fascists and the communists in the family stopped speaking.

But the farmers and the cowboys became friends.

Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover; Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur.

Pamela was a lesbian.

Deborah Mitford was classic posh... great friend of royalty, the then Prince of Wales, now King, in particular.

Only a bonafide, bonkers aristo would have a funeral with a wicker casket, Charles and Camilla and a brass band playing New York, New York.

Is the series released weekly or is it binge and burn?

In the UK it's being shown on UKTV which people outside the UK may be able to access with a VPN.

In addition to Jim Carter and Dame Imelda Staunton's child the series also stars Richard Attenborough and Sylvia Sim' grandson and the nephew of Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack.

In her memoir "Hons and Rebels," Jessica said for every swastika her sister Unity would scratch with a diamond on the window of their former playroom, she would scratch a hammer and sickle.

R2, Debo was the youngest. She became the Duchess of Devonshire.

Nancy and Jessica are both hilarious writers. I recommend Jessica's memoir and Nancy's novels, particularly "The Pursuit of Love," "Love in a Cold Climate," and "Christmas Pudding."

The Pursuit of Love was adapted by Emily Mortimer (who steals the show with a small part) and starring Lily James and Dominic West and DL fav Andrew Scott. It is on Prime and is hilarious. Offbeat take, but really enjoyable. Sort of Downton Abbey meets Saltburn without the worst of either.

I read “The Pursuit of Love” years ago and remember very little but I do remember the family playing fox hunt and the children were the foxes and the father would chase with guns - for fun.

I’ve no idea if this was something she drew upon from memory.

[quote]Unity’s infatuation with Hitler was nuts. Do you think he slept with her?

No, I've read a lot about the sisters and it's generally agreed that he didn't. Though as one sister put it, she would if he'd asked her.

The 1980 Love in a Cold Climate is wonderful.

R22 Debo loved Elvis. Bill Clinton arranged for her to see Graceland.

I watched the first two episodes. It didn’t bring these extraordinary characters to life. Nice production values, but one big mistake is toning down the way they spoke. They were so posh they hardly used consonants. Nobody has spoken like that for many years, but it was a distinctive marker of social rank.

Here’s Diana being interviewed by the great Mavis Nicholson.She was a vile, unrepentant fascist till the end. She would have rolled out the red carpet had Hitler succeeded in invading the UK.

When Debo was a teenager a family friend condescendingly asked her if she was looking forward to marrying Mr Right. She replied that in fact she was rather looking forward to marrying the Duke of Right.

Which she did, in a roundabout way - married the second son of the Duke of Devonshire whose elder brother the Marquess of Hartington was heir to the dukedom. Hartington was married to Kick Kennedy - sister of JFK. When he was killed in WWII Debo’s husband became heir and then they were Duke and Duchess after the death of the previous Duke.

Debo was sister-in-law to JFK’s sister.

[quote]The 1980 Love in a Cold Climate is wonderful.

I've not seen that but the 2001 BBC version was on Netflix and is marvellous. It doesn't have Judi Dench but it does have Rosamund Pike, Alan Bates, Celie Imrie, Daniel Evans and Frances Barber as The Bolter.

[quote]No, I've read a lot about the sisters and it's generally agreed that he didn't. Though as one sister put it, she would if he'd asked her.

How pathetic, though I guess I would not be surprised if Hitler was some creepy incel that wanted to no part of her, but would gladly pass her off to some other high ranking brown shirt. Aside from being a weird, ugly person, Unity was clearly an incompetent one too to botch a shot to the head.

I watched the first two episodes & its entertaining in a silly/don't have to pay close attention way, but as I watched it, I couldn't help but think that if not for their social rank, notoriety & beauty, they'd be just another bunch of dim bitches that latched on to ideologies they didn't really understand or could relate to because they could be so easily influenced. The exception being of course Nancy (clever but clueless) and the youngest Deb, who is played by the ugliest actress.

The Diane character is clearly dickamatized by Mosely, but just seems like an empty vessel of a person. I like the costumes, scenery and the actors are relatively good (even it is a nepo-fest), but these characters aren't as interesting as I'd thought they'd be. Maybe it will pick up once WWII comes along & everyone has to stop bitching & pick aside. That & the communist is just annoying.

I wouldn't call any of them dim, except for Unity, who I really think was "slow." Maybe mentally disabled (and I mean even before she shot herself).

It's obvious Nancy and Jessica were quite intelligent. Deborah too seems plenty bright if you read her books. It's hard to know Pam except via what her sisters said about her.

Diana's story is crazy. She had a great life till she was dickmatized, as R36 so accurately put it. She had a handsome, nice and *very* wealthy husband who was crazy about her. Two healthy kids and a wide circle of creative and influential friends. Then she ran off with this sleazy fascist who was not only married but cheated on her too - and she was one of the great beauties of her age. He must have had incredible charisma in person because his photos are not impressive.

The Mosley family are really very tragic.

Ozzie and Di had 2 sons - Alexander and Max. Alexander died in 2005 and is the father of Loius Mosley who is the head of Palantir in the UK.

The handsome Max ended up running Formula 1 and was involved in a S&M scandal involving a party where he was spanked so hard he bled, and although it was dubbed a "Nazi sex party", one of the prostitutes was wearing a military uniform that wasn't a Nazi uniform.

And one of Max's sons died from a heroin overdose age 40, which he blamed on the public shame of the media coverage. Mosley then bankrolled a privacy campaign.

“Ozzie and Di”?

Well, maybe "dim" is a bitch harsh, but they were the Kardashians of their day