The lowdown:  'The Edwardians' is an eight-part miniseries which examines the public and private lives of eight people
who were a major influence on the Edwardian era in Britain. Many of the individuals who are featured in the series left a
lasting legacy, and while in some cases they may no longer be household names, they all left their mark on the history
of both Britain and the world. Those featured in the series include Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Sherlock Holmes
creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Boy Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell and the two founders of Rolls-Royce, Charles
Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce.  The series was broadcast on BBC1 between 21 November 1972 and 9 January 1973,
and the cast included Anthony Hopkins, Charles Lloyd Pack, Nigel Davenport, Timothy West and Annette Crosbie.

The episode:  'Daisy' was the seventh episode of the series, and was broadcast on 2 January 1973. It looks at the life
of King Edward VII (Thorley Walters), from the point of view of his mistress, Frances Greville, the Countess of Warwick,
whose was widely known as Daisy (and played by Virginia McKenna. The episode begins with a mature Daisy meeting
with Frank Harris,  a journalist whom she plans to hire to ghost-write her memoirs and publish her love letters from the
late Edward. The history of her love affairs and her conversion to the cause of socialiam is then examined in a series of
flashbacks. Daisy's many lovers included a prime minister (Lord Rosebery), a military man (Sir Douglas Haig), and even 
a clergyman. A very young Colin Baker played another of her lovers, Captain Joseph Laycock, whom she described as
the love of her life. However, Joseph met another woman after she fell off her horse during a hunt. She became pregnant
and he married her, leaving Daisy with a broken heart. Walters was to reprise his role of Edward VII in the final episode.

Who connections:  Apart from Colin Baker, this episode also featured Llewellyn Rees, who played the President of the
High Council of Gallifrey in The Deadly Assassin, and Angus MacKay (Borusa in the same story, and the headmaster in
Mawdryn Undead). Other episodes also featured Who actors, including Trevor Baxter (Professor Litefoof in The Talons of
Weng-Chiang), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard in The Trial of a Time Lord), John Death (Lupton in Planet of the Spiders),
Keith Barron (Captain Striker in Enlightenment),  Fulton MacKay (Dr Quinn in The Silurians),  George Sewell (Ratcliffe in
Remembrance of the Daleks) and Jacqueline Pearce (Chessene in The Two Doctors).


Video clips:   Daisy and Laycock     6.3mb                Laycock's new lover     3.7mb

    

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