“I meet men, I dine with men. It doesn’t follow that I have affairs with every single man that I meet,” Claire Foy stresses in the new trailer for “A Very British Scandal.” “There are only so many hours in a day.” The follow-up to “A Very English Scandal” sees Foy portraying Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll. A glamorous socialite known for her beauty, charm, and fashion sense, Margaret is comfortable being the center of attention — that is, until her ugly divorce from her second husband, Ian (Paul Bettany).
In real life and on the show, Ian engaged in something akin to revenge porn: he stole intimate pictures of Margaret with other men and produced a list of the men he believed Margaret had affairs with during their marriage. But, as the spot suggests, Ian was probably more interested in humiliating his wife than proving she was unfaithful. “How many men have you got?” Ian asks Margaret at one point, seemingly wondering how many lovers she has. “How many women have you got?” Margaret shoots back.
“He doesn’t care about affairs, the only thing he cares about is destroying me,” Margaret says.
“A Very British Scandal” hails from writer Sarah Phelps (“The Pale Horse”) and director Anne Sewitsky (“Sonja – The White Swan”). “A Very English Scandal” told the story of Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe’s hapless attempts to have his ex-lover Norman Scott killed.
“A Very British Scandal” will air over three consecutive nights in the U.K., on BBC, beginning December 26. The miniseries will stream on Amazon Prime in the U.S. sometime in the future, but a premiere date is TBD.