Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
4 BANCROFT
1-3 January, 9pm, ITV
She’s probably the most corrupt cop ever to walk the TV beat – and she’s back on patrol in the New Year. Sarah Parish returns as Elizabeth Bancroft, whose career continues to flourish despite committing murder. This new three-parter sees her under pressure from boss Cliff Walker (Adrian Edmondson), who suspects she’s a very bad apple. ‘She’s a cold-blooded killer,’ says Sarah. ‘Now it’s a question of whether her evil deeds will catch up with her.’
The brief but incendiary liaison between balding 46-year-old government minister John
Profumo and beautiful 19-year-old model and exotic dancer Christine
Keeler was the political and social scandal of the 1960s.
The Profumo Affair involved sex, power, glamour, money, influence – and even, possibly, a Soviet spy. Unsurprisingly the story has prompted books, a film, a play and a West End musical, but until now it’s a tale that’s been told mainly from a male perspective.
But BBC1’S greatly anticipated six-part drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler finally puts Christine and her friend Mandy
Rice-davies centre stage. ‘Nobody has ever asked what it was like for two 19-year-old girls to be at the heart of that story, but that is what the writer Amanda Coe is doing in our drama,’ says producer Rebecca Ferguson. ‘We wanted to look at it through a different lens.’
Sophie Cookson plays Christine, with Ellie Bamber as Mandy, Ben Miles as Profumo, Emilia Fox as his wife Valerie and James Norton as Christine and Mandy’s osteopath friend Stephen Ward. Former Grantchester star James says the makers of the series have gone to great lengths to ensure its accuracy. ‘Amanda Coe pulled an entire scene because she couldn’t verify it,’ he says. ‘We’ve done a lot of research into our characters and tried to get as close to the truth of what actually happened as we possibly can.’
Tim Oglethorpe