23-06-2025
Missing 'Rivals'? Let 6-Part Period Drama 'Outrageous' Hailed As 'Perfection' By Viewers Fill The Void
Rivals may have recently started filming on its second season, but for those counting the days, hours and minutes before its small screen return, may we present to you a new mini series. that may well pique your interest: Outrageous, a six-part series depicting the lives of the infamous Mitford sisters.
The series is based on the 1930s chapters of Mary S. Lovell's biography of all six sisters, The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family. It tells the story of the aristocratic Mitford family, who became notorious during the 1930s due to the six Mitford sisters — daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney Bowles, whom he married in 1904. Sydney was the daughter of publisher and politician Thomas Gibson Bowles, and David was the second son of Bertram, Lord Redesdale.
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The couple had seven children — six girls and one boy — and their family homes were Asthall Manor and Swinbrook in Oxfordshire. Naturally, their lives were a continuous romp of fun and frivolity — that is until things took a turn for the worse, of course. This is everything you need to know about Outrageous.
Anybody who was anybody in the 1930s would have been familiar with the Mitford family, most notably the half-dozen Mitford sisters, who all grew in six drastically different directions. (The only Mitford brother, Tom, died during World War II.) Of the sisters, one became a Nazi, another a socialist. All but one married; all but one divorced, and most of them lived long lives, except one sister, who died of suicide.
Somehow, despite the sister's different social circles including everybody from John F. Kennedy and Cecil Beaton to Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, and Oswald Mosley, the sisters remained close for almost a century.
All six episodes of Outrageous are adapted from Lovell's biography of the family. The series is told through the voice of Nancy Mitford, whose friendship group became known by the British tabloids as the 'Bright Young Things.'
Nancy became a hit author, with her work subtly satirising the shenanigans of her family, most notably in her bestseller, The Pursuit of Love.
The majority of Outrageous was filmed in a house 40 minutes from London where the team shot multiple scenes, including those set in Diana's magnificent townhouse and the Black Cat Club, and where they filmed during the summer.
James Purefoy, who plays the Mitfords' father, who the Mitfords affectionately called Farv, said: 'They'd be mad not to, I think', per the Mirror, while the series' creator Sarah Williams suggested in an interview that she has already considered where the story could go in a second season.
'I think it's a really complicated set of reasons why people might be drawn in those directions. For these women, I think sibling culture plays a significant role. We have to ask, if Diana hadn't left Brian [Guinness, her first husband] and devoted her life to Lord Mosley, would Unity have gone to Germany and stalked Hitler? If Unity hadn't done that, would Decca have gone off to — which we would have her do in season two — join the Spanish Civil War and fight with the communists? There is a bit of, do they egg each other on, in a way,' Williams said, nodding to a potential second season.
Outrageous is available to stream on BritBox now.
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Naomi May is a freelance writer and editor with an emphasis on popular culture, lifestyle and politics. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard as its Fashion and Beauty Writer, working across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Acting News Editor at ELLE UK and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others.
