A GRIPPING new costume drama is set to air on BBC Two tonight – and heading the cast is a familiar face and a former Reading Blue Coat School pupil.
Natalie Dormer, now best known for her role in Game of Thrones, will be appearing in The Scandalous Lady W, a look at the life of Lady Seymour Worsley who lived in the 18th century.
The scandal comes when Lady Worsley leaves her husband for his best friend, revealing the sordid details of her husband’s life when he places her on trial for her adultery.
The play is based on real life events, as detailed in Hallie Rubenhold’s book Lady Worsley’s Whim, which itself is inspired by a full length oil painting of Lady Worsley that hangs in Harewood House in Yorkshire. She is depicted wearing a bright red riding habit.
Kim Shillinglaw, who heads up BBC Two, said: “It is an almost unbelievable tale of a woman whose audacity and risk-taking stood against the currents of her time, and I’m delighted to have attracted such strong talent both on and off screen to make it.”
And who better than Natalie Dormer to play Lady Worsley?
The 33-year-old has had a stratospheric career that has included a two-year stint as Anne Boleyn in The Tudors and appearances in the hit film series The Hunger Games. Now she’s on the cover of this week’s Radio Times, highlighting her lead role in the drama of the summer.
She said of her latest role: “I am thrilled to be playing a woman who was so ahead of her time. Though our story is set in the 18th century, it challenges and explores the issues still fully relevant today of freedom and equality.”
In her Radio Times interview, she said the play had originally intended to be part of a Strong Women season on the BBC, but it was considered so strong that it became the stand-alone drama you’ll see on Monday.
Dormer, who is engaged to director Anthony Bryne, grew up in the Thames Valley and has a brother and a sister. Her first secondary school was Chiltern Edge in Sonning Common, but switched to Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning for her sixth form, one of the first girls to do so.
She then went to the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art, landing a role in the film Casanova in 2005, appearing alongside Heath Ledger. The Tudors came knocking in 2007, before The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones.
She is due to appear in two films coming soon: The Forest and Patient Zero, a zombie comedy alongside former Doctor Who Matt Smith.
It’s clear that the former Sonning schoolgirl has come a long way… and will be a hit on our screens for years to come.
