BBC drama ‘rewrote history to turn scandalous aristocrat into a feminist'

Telegraph

30-05-2025

The BBC rewrote the story of an 18th century heiress to wrongly paint her as a feminist heroine, the historian Hallie Rubenhold has claimed.
Rubenhold, an award-winning historian, was delighted when her biography of Seymour Fleming, styled Lady Worsley, was turned into a BBC Two drama starring Natalie Dormer.
In a case that scandalised society in 1781, Seymour left her husband, Sir Richard Worsley, to elope with his best friend.
Sir Richard sued for damages and the case became a sensation when Seymour revealed in court that she had taken many other lovers.
This 'devalued' her in the eyes of the law and Sir Richard was awarded only a shilling in compensation.
The BBC told this story in The Scandalous Lady W, which aired in 2015.
After years of speaking diplomatically about the adaptation, Rubenhold confided her feelings to an audience at the Hay Festival.
She said it was 'spine-tingling' to see her work transferred to the screen but went on: 'It is an act of negotiation. For me, one of the most difficult things about that was the desire to make Lady Worsley into a feminist when she absolutely was not a feminist.
'She was a rich heiress who wanted her money back. And she did what she could to get it back.
'She wasn't doing these things for the good of womankind or anybody else other than herself, and there was this desire to frame her as a feminist so she could speak to a modern audience, and that made me slightly uncomfortable.'
Rubenhold shared the stage with fellow historian Joshua Levine, who was a historical consultant on Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk and Steve McQueen's Blitz.
The pair discussed the historical inaccuracies found in film and television period dramas.
Levine singled out Downton Abbey for its 'really modern characters with modern attitudes who are very anti-racism and very inclusive, and it's really frustrating to watch. It's nice, it's cosy but it's not right.'
Rubenhold reserved her greatest ire for a Hollywood blockbuster. 'I absolutely cannot stand Titanic. I hate everything about Titanic. I really was glad that Jack died,' she said.
'James Cameron was so obsessed with the technicalities of the ship – moment-by-moment, how it was sinking, how at this point it split in half, at this point that collapsed, these people slipped that way and this room flooded.
'Why did nobody pay any attention to the believability of the characters? Because these were not characters from 1912. The entire plot was just stupid.'