A very British scandal DOWNFALL OF A DUCHESS

A new TV series uncovers the unseemly side of a one

- Judy Kean

After getting her big break playing a young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two series of The Crown, actress Claire Foy has returned to period drama to star as another real person. But the upper-class Brit she portrays in the miniseries A Very British Scandal couldn't be more different to the greatly respected monarch she portrayed.

Claire stars as an aristocrat whose behaviour was so shocking, she was known as “the dirty duchess”. Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, went from being a much-admired society darling to a shamed outcast who, during a tempestuous divorce trial in 1963, became the victim of what we today call "revenge porn”.

Once famed for her wealth and her beauty, Margaret eventually died alone and penniless, and Claire, 37, says although the duchess was deeply flawed, she feels sorry for the way she was treated.

“To have fallen from grace so far and then to be so alone, that breaks my heart."

It was a sad ending to a life that got off to a promising start. Born in 1912, Margaret was the only child of Scottish businessman and self-made billionaire George Whigham. She grew up in New York, where her father ran a technology company, before returning to the UK at 14. Even at that early age, her beauty and status as an heiress attracted a lot of attention. She didn't let a severe stammer stand in her way (she sought help from George VI's speech therapist Lionel Logue, but his treatment didn't work) as she set about becoming a hugely popular socialite.