BritBox Announces New Series 'Outrageous' Starring 'Bridgerton's Bessie Carter
Bessie Carter holds the clapper to mark the start of filming on 'Outrageous'
BritBox
Move over Kardashians; there’s a new dynasty of celebrity sisters headed to our screens — except they were born over a century ago. Enter the Mitford sisters, the subjects of a forthcoming BritBox period drama, Outrageous, which began filming today around Buckinghamshire. The six Mitford sisters, born between 1904 and 1920, captured the imagination of the British public like 20th-century Kardashians, famous for being famous. They were confident, opinionated, politically connected, and eminently eccentric.
They also managed to capture the imagination of writer and producer Sarah Williams, who has adapted the Mitford sisters’ story from Mary Lovell's biography of the family, The Mitford Girls. This isn’t Williams’s first crack at adapting from page to screen. She was the writer behind the BBC’s period drama The Long Song, based on a novel of the same name, which came over to the US via Masterpiece in 2021. Though each sister’s story is more outlandish than the last, Outrageous will center on the eldest Mitford sister, Nancy Mitford, played by Bessie Carter (Bridgerton). Nancy Mitford, a socialist with a sharp sense of humor, was a mildly successful author on the fringes of the Bright Young Things social scene. One of her novels, Love In A Cold Climate, was even adapted for the screen by the BBC in 2001 (and streams on BritBox!).
Carter’s Nancy Mitford will be joined by a cast that includes Joanna Vanderham (Crime) as Diana Mitford, Shannon Watson (Say Nothing) as Unity Mitford, Zoe Brough (Casualty) as Jessica Mitford, Orla Hill (Stonehouse) as Deborah Mitford and Isobel Jesper Jones (The Serpent Queen) as Pamela Mitford. Their brother Tom will be played by Toby Regbo (Belgravia: The Next Chapter), with Anna Chancellor (The Split) and James Purefoy (The Veil) as their oddball parents Muv and Farve.
The series synopsis, according to BritBox, is as follows:
Outrageous is the story of six aristocratic sisters who refused to play by the rules, their often-scandalous lives making headlines around the world. Set against the gathering storm clouds of the 1930s, masked by the decadence, frivolity and lavishness of British high society, Outrageous will bring the full, uncensored story of the Mitford sisters to the screen for the first time - a story of family bonds and betrayals, public scandal, political extremism, love, heartache and even imprisonment. The show explores how and why these women, unwilling to conform, were so ahead of their time - and what drove them to take their very different, complex and often dangerous paths. A family saga like no other, this is the Mitfords as they really were: unapologetic, outrageous and utterly human.
On her role as the eldest Mitford sister, Bessie Carter told BritBox, “I am thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to bring someone as brilliant as Nancy Mitford to life. She was one piece of a truly fascinating family of remarkable and unique women, and I can’t wait to tell their story.”
Joanna Vanderham, who will play middle sister, Diana, echoed Carter’s excitement, saying, “The role brings a new challenge for me as I delve into her character, which was forged in a tumultuous period in British history, the 1930s, and it’s undeniable that the political climate she navigated holds a striking relevance to the present day.”
Outrageous is set to arrive on BritBox in 2025.
