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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