Wicked Women

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