Sarah Phelps has explored fictional murders, betrayals, and mysteries in her five TV adaptations of Agatha Christie’s work. For her next project, she’s setting her sights on a very real infamy — this one of a social nature. Deadline reports the “Pale Horse” scribe is writing Season 2 of “A Very English Scandal,” the Amazon/BBC anthology portraying outrageous, real-life controversies that rocked Britain.
“The BBC is on the brink of formally confirming the recommission, with Amazon expected to be involved again,” the source notes.
Phelps’ three-part season will tell the story of Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll, and the 1963 sex scandal she was embroiled in. “During a messy divorce from her second husband, he seized images of Campbell performing a sex act on an unknown man and she became known as ‘The Dirty Duchess,'” Deadline details.
“I am writing a three-hour show about an extremely famous blowjob, because of course, what else would I do once I’ve finished killing people?” Phelps quipped. “I’m just filth, I’m in the gutter.”
“A Very English Scandal’s” award-winning first season focused on Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant) and his bumbling efforts to have his ex-lover, Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw), killed. The three-hour series also delved into the men’s personal lives, and their final encounter in court.
Phelps is replacing Russell T. Davies as the show’s writer, but confirms he’ll still be involved during Season 2. “I’ve known him for a very long time, we have worked together really well,” she said of Davies, whom she also described as her “hero.”
“The Pale Horse,” the last of Phelps’ planned quintet of Agatha Christie adaptations, hits Amazon Prime on Friday, March 13. The miniseries, directed by Leonora Lonsdale, previously aired on BBC One. Phelps also wrote and exec produced “The ABC Murders,” “Ordeal by Innocence,” “The Witness for the Prosecution,” and “And Then There Were None.”
Phelps created “Dublin Murders,” a Starz crime drama based on Tana French’s novels. Among her other credits are “The White Princess,” “Hooten & the Lady,” and “The Crimson Field.” She won a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain prize for penning “The Witness for the Prosecution” and Best Screenwriter at the Seoul International Drama Awards for her 2012 TV adaptation of “Great Expectations.”
