The BBC has shared a first look at Claire Foy and Paul Bettany in A Very British Scandal.
The pair will play the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in the drama series about the couple’s high-profile divorce in the 1960s.
Foy will play Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, who was famed for her charisma, beauty and style, and who dominated the front pages as a divorce featuring accusations of forgery, theft, violence, drug-taking, secret recording, bribery and an explicit polaroid picture all played out.
A Very British Scandal will explore the social and political climate of post-war Britain and look at attitudes towards women to ask whether institutional misogyny was widespread at the time.
The show will be made by the team behind the BBC’s A Very English Scandal, which starred Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as politician Jeremy Thorpe and his lover Norman Scott.
The first images from the drama show Foy in an autumnal setting while sporting a classic red lip and finger-wave hairstyle, and wearing a black winter coat with thick fur trim along with a hat, gloves and tartan scarf.
Another shows the decadent lifestyle of the character as the actress can be seen at a lavish event laughing while holding a coupe glass, wearing a sparkly evening dress, pearl necklace and white gloves.
Foy is also seen in court in a crisp grey suit with a matching hat and her signature pearl necklace.
The 37-year-old actress previously played the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown, which won her the Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series in 2018.
She is joined by Bettany, who starred as Vision in WandaVision and Avengers: Infinity War, who will play her husband Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, while Gavin & Stacey star Julia Davis will portray Maureen, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava.
Also joining the cast are Amanda Drew, Richard McCabe, Phoebe Nicholls, Camilla Rutherford, Timothy Renouf, Sophia Myles, Sophie Ward and Tim Steed.
Katherine Manners, Richard Goulding, Jonathan Aris, Oliver Chris, Nicholas Rowe and Miles Jupp will also star.
The three-part series will be written by Sarah Phelps, who previously wrote The Pale Horse, And Then There Were None and Dublin Murders, and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Anne Sewitsky.
The series will premiere on BBC One and will be available on Amazon Prime Video in 2022.
