THE PRICE OF PRIVILEGE (A VERY BRITISH SCANDAL)

It's hard to think of anything less Christmasssy than the bitter divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in 1963.

Yet someone with a rather odd sense of humour must have scheduled a 'Very British Scandal' on BBC1 over three nights from Boxing Day.

The reason for this is unclear, other than the scheduler might have thought it might have put some people's crummy Christmases into perspective.

On the other hand, it may have been the kind of escapism some viewers felt they needed after gorging on turkey, ham, stuffing and being buried in an avalanche of festive TV over the Christmas period.

Writer Sarah Phelps and Norwegian director Anne Sewitsky have teamed up for a three part telling for BBC1 and Amazon Prime of the messy marriage and even messier divorce of Ian Campbell and Margaret Whigham, who was given the nickname of "the Dirty Duchess" by the tabloids.

Claire Foy takes on the role of Margaret who at the start of the miniseries divorces her first husband and encounters Paul Bettany's flirtatious Ian Campbell on a train.

Ian, who is yet to become the Duke of Argyll, is on his second marriage to Sophia Myles' Louise 'Oui Oui' Campbell.

However from the off, he is driven in his pursuit of Margaret - insisting that even if there was the remotest possibility of her becoming his, he would move quickly to put a ring on her finger.

Their subsequent affair is the subject of much gossip in socialite circles .

Eventually after enduring months of humiliation, Louise relents and Ian is free to marry after becoming the Duke of Argyll.

He also charms Margaret's father, Richard McCahe's George Whigham into investing in a Royal Navy divers' exploration of a Spanish Armada wreck purported to be loaded with treasure off the isle of Mull.

Not only that but he manages to cadge membership of George's club in London.

It soon becomes clear, however, that Ian is reckless with money and a bit of a sponger who resents being questioned by Margaret about his financial affairs.

As the first cracks in the marriage start to show, Margaret continues to enjoy the life of a socialite, hanging around with her friend Julia Davis's Maureen Guinness, the Marchioness of Dufferin, who throws extravagant, promiscuous parties for the aristocracy.

Margaret grows close to Timothy Renouf's Peter Combe who accompanies her as a friend on the London party circuit.

The Duchess continues to clash with Louise and suspect that Ian's heavy drinking and amphetamine fuelled lifestyle is responsible for his womanising and increasingly aggressive and reckless behaviour.

Amid rumours that the marriage will only last until he has drained the Whighams of all their cash, the relationship starts to disintegrate.

The discovery by him of diaries and incriminating evidence of Margaret's own infidelity, including a scandalous photo of her engaging in a sex act with a man who cannot be identified, results in divorce proceedings.

During the showdown in Edinburgh's divorce courts, both seem intent on trashing each other's public reputation.

There can only be one winner.

The story of the Duke and Duchess' spectacular falling out has always felt like fertile ground for a TV drama.

Media coverage of the sordid details of the divorce were a bit of a turning point in the development of the tabloid media and their interest in the private lives of the rich and famous.

To this day, there continues to be speculation as to who the headless man in the photo was - a secret that Margaret took with her to the grave.

Phelps and Sewitsky, however, focus on the public shaming of the Duchess and there is no doubt that in a drama where the behaviour of most of the characters, including hers, is pretty monstrous, the Duke is the biggest ogre of them all. 

The three part miniseries is at its most effective in showing the double standards in the treatment of the Duke's caddish behaviour with the derision meted out to his third wife.

Foy and Bettany relish the chance to play characters who plumb the depths of depravity and they do a pretty professional job.

However the problem with Phelps' screenplay is that while it is watchable, it is also sometimes a bit too soapy for its own good.

It's hard to really have much sympathy too for its characters who flounce around like they are in a British aristocratic version of 'Dynasty'.

Sewitsky and Phelps' telling of the scandal lacks the narrative guile of Stephen Frears and Alan T Davies' 2018 account of the Jeremy Thorpe trial 'A Very English Scandal' with Ben Whishaw and Hugh Grant.

Whereas Frears and Davies attacked that remarkable story with wit laced with tragedy, Sewitsky and Phelps' treatment of the Argyll scandal is much more conventional and inevitably prurient.

While Davis, McCabe, Myles, Renouf and Phoebe Nicholls as Helen Whigham deliver solid supporting performances and Sewitsky shows some nice directorial flourishes, the whole affair seems flat like a glass of champagne that its socialites may have left unquaffed overnight.

Handsomely shot by Si Bell, you nonetheless wish that there was more to 'A Very British Scandal' than toffs behaving badly which is pretty much what you get until the last half hour.

It is only in the final furlong that it finally starts to focus on the gender politics and the contrasting treatment of the Duke's misbehaviour and the Duchess's.

Phelps and Sewitsky's drama is watchable, disposable but it is far from remarkable.

As a period drama shown over the Christmas period, it feels perfunctory.

Call me a Festive traditionalist but give me a Dickens adaptation over this any day.

('A Very British Scandal' was broadcast on BBC1 on December 27-29, 2021)