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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Shows by Decade»1970s Television
    1970s Television Drama Shows W 6 Mins Read

    Wicked Women

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    1 9 7 0 (UK)
    6 x 54 minute episodes

    This drama series from London Weekend Television was based on true-life cases of women who made the headlines of Victorian newspapers. The six episodes aired as part of Sunday Night Theatre (1969 – 1971), a compendium of dramas produced for ITV by a variety of companies.

    Episodes

    Alice Rhodes | Christiana Edmunds | Augusta Fullam | Anne-Maria Moody | Florence Maybrick | Madeleine July


    Alice Rhodes

    Alice Rhodes (Joanna Dunham) provided her lover with a wealthy wife and then arranged that wife’s death from malnutrition, neglect and ill-treatment as Alice systematically starved dull-witted and plain Harriet (Gillian Raine) to death in an attic. The story was an unpleasant one, made far worse by a good deal of gloating over the poor woman’s scabs and excrement, and a flip application of sexual sadism.

    The cool beauty of the murderess, her wish to make love after her visits to the attic to whip her victim, and the amount of hovering camera work made this an unattractive stomach-turning hour. Di Seaney was disturbingly convincing in the small but very important role of the callous maidservant Clare.

    Alice Rhodes
    Joanna Dunham
    Louis Staunton
    Ralph Bates
    Patrick Staunton
    David McKail
    Mrs Downes
    Hazel Bainbridge
    May Staunton
    Rosemary McHale
    Harriet Staunton
    Gillian Raine
    Mrs Wallace
    Jean Anderson
    Clare
    Di Seaney
    Evans
    James Ottaway
    Inspector Hamilton
    Henry McCarthy
    Sergeant Mence
    David Webb
    Lizzy Evans
    Philippa Urquhart
    Doctor Longrigg
    Christopher Banks
    Tom Carter
    Raymond Barry


    Christiana Edmunds

    This story of Christiana Edmunds (Anna Massey), a mad girl with father fixations and a strong line in nymphomania who was prepared to murder at random to gain the love of a handsome doctor. The case made headlines in the heatwave summer of 1870.

    The episode was well-constructed and enjoyably harrowing as it looked behind the genteel facade of a seemingly respectable house in Brighton where the young Christiana was kept virtually a prisoner by her feeble mother and the tyrant housekeeper, Mrs Boding (Sonia Dresdel).

    Escaping briefly, the girl lights on the handsome Dr Beard (Richard Gale) and instantly conceives an obsessive passion for him. She attempts to poison his wife, succeeds in poisoning twelve other people, and breaks her pet spaniel’s leg.

    Christiana Edmunds
    Anna Massey
    Mama
    Mona Washbourne
    Mrs Boding
    Sonia Dresdel
    Parsons
    Joan Knowles
    Tweeny
    Sarah-Jane Ladbrook
    Mr Bartlett
    Paddy Ward
    Doctor Beard
    Richard Gale
    Doctor Lovat
    Charles Lloyd Pack
    Miss Wagstaff
    Suzanne Vasey
    Mrs Wagstaff
    Ann Martin
    Bertha
    Una Brandon-Jones
    Mrs Beard
    Gillian Lewis
    Inspector Gibb
    Rex Graham


    Augusta Fullam

    Played by Vivien Merchant, Augusta Fullam is the shy, reserved, Anglo-Indian wife of a government official in Imperial India at the turn of the 20th century. They live in a tight little expatriate British society, as enclosed as a village in which everybody knows everybody else’s business.

    “In London, lovers are all the rage,” remarks one of the mem-sahibs.

    The touch of envy does not make the ladies less resentful of the man who steps out of line, the incorrigible womaniser Dr Harry Clark (Edward De Souza). They primly agree that he must be taught a lesson, and Augusta is chosen to give it. But it is a plan that badly misfires.

    Augusta Fullam
    Vivien Merchant
    Dr Harry Clark
    Edward De Souza
    Mrs Skinner
    Iris Russell
    Mrs Bushman
    Suzan Farmer
    Lady Arkwright
    Elaine Garreau
    Mrs Tufnell
    Effie Morrison
    Edward Fullam
    Preston Lockwood
    Mr Tufnell
    Arthur Pentelow
    Salmaan
    Albert Moses
    Kate Clark
    Clare Kelly
    Doctor Fisher
    Roger Hammond
    Mary Fullam
    Verna Harvey


    Anne-Maria Moody

    Anne-Maria Moody (Jane Asher) is the young and passionate mistress of Major Murray (William Lucas) – a cold, mean, humourless man.  Plunged hopelessly into debt by her desires and extravagance, she turns in desperation to a money-lender who soon becomes infatuated with his flirtatious client.

    Seeing a chance of happiness with the moneylender’s attractive son, Anne-Maria persuades the usurer to murder her protector, Major Murray. But one of those cruel, ironic twists of fate cheats her of everything she longs for.

    Anne-Maria Moody
    Jane Asher
    Major William Murray
    William Lucas
    Andrew Roberts
    John Stratton
    Alice Campbell
    Eve Pearce
    Dominic Roberts
    Derek Steen
    Mary Lines
    Barbara Keogh
    Preston-Lumb
    Terence Soall
    Trent
    David Cargill
    Reverend Forbes
    Michael Burrell
    Richard Timms
    Tony Jackson
    Doctor Canton
    John Devaut
    Chef
    Michael Earl
    Nurse
    Judith South


    Florence Maybrick

    The fifth in this series of plays concerns 20-year-old Florence Maybrick (Nicola Pagett). Lost, lonely and frightened, Florrie is a bride of only a few months, bound to a man twice her age.

    James Maybrick (John Carson), already an adulterer, flaunts his escapades in his young wife’s face, knowing that the drunken orgies revolt her.

    Revulsion, fear and terror drive her to a desperate solution as she slowly poisons James, watching him – as he dies a slow, agonised death – with a smile on her face.

    She may have got away with it but for a lesbian-inclined housekeeper (Ingrid Hafner) whose affections are spurned by Florence and whose personal revenge is to send for the police.

    Florence Maybrick
    Nicola Pagett
    James Maybrick
    John Carson
    Doctor Macrae
    James Hayter
    Mrs Pilbeam
    Ingrid Hafner
    Lottie Saunders
    Pauline Stroud
    Hugh Pentecost
    Henry Moxon
    Alice Yapp
    Sally Geeson
    Mr Mercer
    Arnold Peters
    Alfred Brierley
    Paul Shelley
    Mrs Mercer
    Mary Rennie


    Madeleine July

    Madeleine July (Billie Whitelaw) is a failed French showgirl and part-time trollop who is offered security and marriage by an innocent and virgin butcher. She takes it and finds she quite likes him.

    Her life is ruined when her former lover returns and seduces her. Subsequently, as she resists her husband’s first advances, on the grounds that the time is wrong, she accidentally kills him.

    Regaining her composure she convinces judge and jury that the lover had done it out of revenge, and escapes with her life and her husband’s inheritance.

    The disposal of Madeleine’s husband was beautifully handled, and ended with a chilling moment as the body – on the point of being covered in sand – suddenly opened its eyes and moved. Madeleine, with a strangled cry of “Oh no”, stopped for a moment, and then carried on burying the man until he was underneath a solid layer of concrete.

    Madeleine July
    Billie Whitelaw
    Madame Bonheur
    Mary Morris
    Jacques Libersat
    John Collin
    Corsair
    Fraser Kerr
    Gaby
    Marjie Lawrence
    Fifi
    Suzanne Heath
    Colette
    Samantha Birch
    Elaine
    Shirley Stelfox
    Charmaine
    Patricia Clapton
    Andre
    Geoff Cheshire
    Rene Hauck
    Pitt Wilkinson
    Natalie
    Sally Thomsett
    Puget
    Erik Chitty

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