Natalie Dormer to bintang as scandalous Woman in Red for new BBC drama 

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Natalie Dormer to star as scandalous Woman in Red for new BBC drama

The true story of the scandalous Lady Worsley will be broadcast for the first time in the BBC\'s The Woman in Red, starring Natalie Dormer

A portrait of Lady Worsley by Joshua Reynolds (left) and actress Natalie Dormer  Photo: Joshua Reynolds and Getty Images

It was the tale that scandalised 18th-century high society, featuring an outrageous court case, one passionate woman, and love affairs galore.

Now, the BBC is to broadcast the true story of Lady Seymour Worsley for the first time, bringing the audacious details of the “woman in red” to life on screen.

Natalie Dormer, star of Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games, is to take the part of Lady Worsley, the wife whose very virtue was put on trial in a 1782 court case that shocked the country.

Described as “passionate and courageous”, she had chosen to leave her husband, Sir Richard Worsley, to elope with his best friend Captain George Bisset.

The affair went on to be played out in scandalous details in the courts after Sir Richard brought a £20,000 case against his former friend for defiling his “possession”: his wife.

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The story, meticulously researched by historian Hallie Rubenhold, was the talk of the time, with numerous pamphlets dedicated to the intrigue and gossip about the virtue of all involved.

It has since fallen from common knowledge, until coming to light again in Rubenhold’s 2008 book compiled from contemporary letters, newspapers and court records.

Dormer, who has previously starred in The Tudors for the BBC, said she is “thrilled” to be playing a woman “so ahead of her time”, as producers hail the “truly brave woman who bucked convention to be with the man she loved”.

The Woman in Red, which will be broadcast on BBC Two after the watershed, will detail the lives of the spirited young heiress born Seymour Dorothy Fleming and her husband, an MP and 7th baronet, as well as their unusual domestic arrangements.

It will begin with the court case that brought it all to light, including Lady Worsley’s dozens of rumoured lovers, Sir Richard’s voyeuristic tendencies and the strange relationship between the three as they socialised in aristocratic England.

At the time, Sir Richard had attempted to win £20,000 from Bisset, under the principle of "criminal conversation"; the premise that a wife was one of her husband’s possessions and had been defiled.

Eventually, the cuckolded husband received just one shilling.

He will be played by Shaun Evans, formerly of Endeavour and The Lost Weekend, with Aneurin Barnard playing Bisset.

Natalie Dormer, who plays Lady Worsley, said: “I am thrilled to be playing a woman who was so ahead of her time. Though our story is set in the 18th century, it challenges and explores the issues still fully relevant today of freedom and equality. To be home in London shooting with such a talented ensemble in front and behind the camera is a real treat”.

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as King Henry VIII in the BBC\'s The Tudors (BBC/SONY)

Kim Shillinglaw, controller of BBC Two, said: “It is an almost unbelievable tale of a woman - Lady Seymour Worsley - whose audacity and risk-taking stood against the currents of her time, and I’m delighted to have attracted such strong talent both on and off screen to make it.”

Eleanor Greene, the show’s executive producer, added: “It’s a privilege to tell this incredible story for the BBC, about a truly brave woman who bucked convention to be with the man she loved.”

The Woman in Red, a 90-minute one-off drama for BBC Two, will be directed by Sheree Folkson, written by David Eldridge. Airing in 2015, it was originally inspired by a painting of Lady Worsley, now at Harewood House, Yorkshire, which shows her wearing a bright red riding habit.

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