Mediocre Mitford tale fails to tell us what was so Outrageous

The lives of the aristocracy during that golden period between the wars seems to fascinate TV programme-makers - all the shooting parties, the balls and the flirtation with fascism exerts a strange fascination.

- Philip Cunnington on Outrageous (U&Drama)

Watching Outrageous (U&Drama, Thurs, 9pm), however, you can't really see why.

It's the story of the Mitford sisters, the famous - or infamous - sibling sorority that apparently took London society and the landed gentry by storm during the 1930s.

Each of the six sisters had some sort of celebrity: Nancy was a novelist, famed for The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate; Diana was a famed beauty who left her fabulously wealthy husband for the country's leading far-right demagogue, Oswald Mosley; Pamela was a noted horsewoman and fond of driving sports cars; Unity fell in love with Adolf Hitler; Jessica became a communist and ran off with her cousin; and Deborah became the Duchess of Devonshire and chatelaine of Chatsworth House.

Each had a notably picaresque life - even by the standards of the bohemian aristos of the time - with scandalous divorces, trips to the Nuremberg rallies, castles in Ireland and elopements to Spain... but very little of this comes across in Outrageous.