THOSE OUTRAGEOUS MITFORD SISTERS!

Ahead of a new TV drama featuring the scandalous high society siblings next week, their biographer examines the enduring appeal of the original 'it' girls

- By Lyndsy Spence

FICIONADOS of the Mitfords are thrilled and worried in equal measure at the prospect of a six-part TV drama revolving around the headline-grabbing high society girls and the political ideologies which tore them apart. Will Outrageous, based on the highly entertaining antics of Britain's most scandalous aristocrats, do them justice?

How will the 1930s-set drama handle the sparkling wit of family chronicler Nancy, then on the cusp of literary fame; the charming eccentricities of Pamela and Deborah, known as 'Debo'; the restlessness of Communist Jessica; and the appalling politics of Hitler-loving Diana and Unity?

In today's world of radical leaders and attention-seeking influencers, the Mitfords are more relevant than ever. Yet history has not been kind to the Mitfords, largely due to Diana's marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, and Unity's friendship with Adolf Hitler.

Of course, it's completely legitimate to criticise the Nazi-sympathising sisters.

Diana never denounced Hitler and Unity died from an infected bullet wound, nine years after having attempted suicide on the day the Second World War was declared by shooting herself with a pearl-handled pistol given her by the Fuhrer.

But there is more to their story than bad politics and, as their biographer, I'm fascinated by what made them tick.

"I am normal, my wife is normal, but my daughters are each more foolish than the other," their father, Lord Redesdale, known as "Farve" and played by James Purefoy in the new drama, said of his daughters who ran roughshod through high society, collecting admirers such as Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward, and Cecil Beaton.

Madness often skips a generation and Lord Redesdale failed to consider environment and genetics, and how eccentricity galloped through the bloodline.