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 Saturday 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 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
