The
lowdown: 'The Millionairess' is based on a 1936
play by George Bernard Shaw, and was originally broadcast
on the BBC as part of its
'Play of the Month' series which ran from October 1965 to September 1983.
This series
largely featured adaptations
of the works of British and foreign playwrights, although new plays were
sometimes
written especially for the
series. 'The Millionairess' was the first episode of the eight season,
and was broadcast on
25 September 1972. It stars
Maggie Smith in the title role of the wealthy Epifania Fitzfassenden, and
Tom Baker
as an Egyptian doctor named
Ahmed el Kabir, complete with fez and beard (does his skin tone look suspiciously
darker than usual? Perhaps
it is just the lighting).
The play begins with Epifania
visiting an attorney with the intention of making a will so she can then
kill herself in
order to escape an unhappy
marriage. She reveals to the lawyer that she had married Alastair, a professional
boxer,
based on a contest suggested
by her wealthy father. He had advised her to give any suitor a sum of £50,
and agree
to marry him only if he
can turn it into £50,000 within six months. Alistair of course fulfills
the terms of the contest,
but Epifania later discovers
that he made the money via some dodgy practices. Both Epifania and Alistair
are having
extramarital relationships,
but Epifania's paramour, Adrian Blenderbland, comes to grief when she pushes
him down
the stairs after he insults
her late father. Ahmed el Kabir (Tom Baker is credited only as 'Egyptian
Doctor' and his
character's name is not
actually used in the telemovie) comes to the assistance of Blenderbland,
and finds she is
quite taken with him, but
he is initially less enthusiastic about her.
Epifania determines to marry
him, notwithstanding that they are both already married. Epifania proposes
the same
wager that led her to marry
Alistair, and Ahmed el Kabir agrees to marry her in six month provided
she satisfies a
similar test that was laid
down by his mother - that she must go out into the world with just 35 shillings
and earn
her living alone and unaided
for six months. She does this by taking over the cafe where they met and
turning it into
a popular eatery. The final
scene sees the doctor agree to marry Epifania, even though he did satisfy
her test, and
had said from the beginning
that he had no intention of doing so.
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