Program Title
A Royal Scandal

Based On
True story, original script by Stanley Price

Number of Episodes:
1

Description
The story opens in 1794 when Lord Malmesbury goes to an obscure German dukedom to negotiate a match between Prince George and the eligible (if not entirely charming) Princess Caroline. It happens that George has already been secretly married to a pretty Roman Catholic widow--an illegal marriage for a royal in Protestant England. The footloose Prince is also having a palace intrigue with the young wife of an esteemed elderly count. But no matter, the wedding takes place just days after George Ūrst lays eyes on his bride-to-be. At the altar, George is fortiŪed with strong drink, which he continues to consume until, at the foot of the nuptial bed, he passes out. And it gets worse. The royal mismatch soon becomes a matter of intense public interest. George spurns his bride as soon as it's obvious a royal heir is on the way. His duty done, he banishes her Ūrst to another part of the palace, later to another palace altogether. Incensed, the public spurns George and adopts the cause of Caroline. 'There would be dangerous consequences if the Princess of Wales were to travel all over England showing herself to the people, especially if she persists in drawing popularity to herself at the expense of myself and my family,' worries the Prince about his own rapidly falling star, and, clairvoyantly, about that of his successors in the far future... Original script by Stanley Price


Original broadcast date
1997-01-12

Cast	Characters
Richard E Grant	George, prince of Wales
Susan Lynch	Caroline of Brunswick
Frances Barber	Lady Jersey
Michael Kitchen	Lord Malmesbury
Caroline Holdaway	Mme. Busch
John Arnatt	Archbishop
Irene Richardson	Maria Fitzherbert
Oliver F Davies	Lord Liverpool
Josephine Gradwell	Sarah Bidgood
John Bardon	William Cole
Amanda Elwes	Lady Charlotte Douglas
Sarah Webb	Mrs. Austin
Denis Lawson	Henry Brougham
Iain Mitchell	Lord Hutchinson
Philip Voss	Sir Robert Gifford
Stephen Boxer	Lord Hood
Ian Richardson	Narrator

Credits
Executive Producer: Rebecca Eaton, Tim Kirby, Janice Hadlow
Producer: Sheree Folkson
Director: Sheree Folkson

Intro
ROYAL SCANDAL/Intro by Russell Baker

Marriage has had a hard time of it in the British royal family. There was Charles the Second with his passion for keeping mistresses and Edward the Seventh with his passion for other men's wives.

Then there's Henry the Eighth -- every bride's worst nightmare about what can happen when the bloom goes off marital bliss.

But royal marriages are not about bliss -- they are about politics. The wife's job is to produce an heir to the throne.

If the bride doesn't understand this, she's in for trouble.

In some cases, romantic love has occurred in royal marriages. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, for example.

More commonly, after the royal wife did her reproductive duty, her husband turned to other women for romantic love. That's what royal husbands were expected to do.

For a wife to follow her husband's example by taking a lover of her own was very bad form. After one of Henry the Eighth's wives took a lover, Henry had her head cut off.

A few other royal wives have refused to play by the rules, and it always makes for a gorgeous scandal.

The disastrous marriage of Charles the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana is an example.

Princess Di, however, was not the first to balk and fight back against a royal husband.

In the early nineteenth century, there was a struggle between a Prince of Wales and a naive young bride that gave England an even juicier scandal than the fight between Charles and Di.

The young bride was Princess Caroline. Her husband, the Prince of Wales, was the son of George the Third, and eventually would become King George the Fourth. He needed a royal wife for practical reasons, but not for love.

He already had a wife he loved.

Complete in one episode, "A Royal Scandal."





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