Mitford sisters stars reveal daunting and exciting challenges of new drama Outrageous

For Bessie Carter, who plays the celebrated novelist, Nancy Mitford, it was her character’s tumultuous marriage with the rakish Peter Rodd (Jamie Blackley) that proved testing to shoot.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, she recalled: "The most daunting [aspect] was walking in and finding my husband cheating on me... it’s quite a scary thing to think about."

For Carter, getting to tell the story of the Mitfords in the first place was a great honour. "The fact that we got to be the ones who dramatised it for the first time with Sarah Williams's amazing scripts, it feels really exciting," she raved.

"Hopefully, people can take a little bit of that female empowerment and that question of family. Like, let's have these conversations – if we all go in different directions, let's talk rather than run away."

While Nancy's arc largely involved the breakdown of her marriage, as well as her strained relationship with her sisters, Joanna Vanderham’s research centred on the endless controversies and complexities of Diana Mitford, who was once described as "the most hated woman in England" after marrying the leader of the British Union of Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosley.

"I started at the beginning of who she was before she became what she’s known as, and I think that’s what the show does really well: it looks at how someone can become extremely radicalised and at what can take someone in a different direction," Vanderham explained.

"What was most special for me was that Mary Lovell shared with me private letters that she had exchanged with Diana. No one else in the world has read these letters, and if I was approaching a certain scene, I could skim through the letters and they would inspire me, so that felt like a real gift in terms of bringing her to life."

Shannon Watson, who portrays Unity Mitford, was also tasked with bringing a contentious character to life, given that Unity was a vocal fascist who famously shared a close relationship with Adolf Hitler.

"She's obviously a very controversial figure and was described once as one of the most hated women in the world, and that aspect of it was daunting," noted the actor.

"But also, when you’re playing a real-life character, you feel a little bit of pressure, so there was that. I tried my best to learn everything about her and read everything about her to bring some sort of essence and give the Mitfordians justice with her character."

Like their co-stars, Zoe Brough, Isobel Jesper Jones and Orla Hill got to know their characters – Jessica, Pamela and Deborah Mitford – through Lovell’s book too, not to mention the many letters exchanged between the real-life sisters.

"Reading the script and getting the audition through, I thought, 'How has it not been done before, because it's such an incredible story?'" recalled Brough. "I think the more research I did, the more courageous I realised she was in her morals and ethics," she noted of Jessica, who would later become a member of the Communist Party.

For Jesper Jones, playing Pamela came as a refreshing change of pace.

"I was personally really excited to play Pamela and play someone nice and together! For quite a lot of time, I’d been playing dark, villainous people, so this was really exciting,” she said.

"Pamela's such a mystery and she’s so private, but she was absolutely fearless. She was the first woman to drive solo across Europe. One of the weirdest things she did, she got an aga custom-made in the exact same shade as her eye colour – a very Mitford thing to do.

"Really usefully, the sisters sent lots of letters between them, so you get such a flavour of their different characteristics, and obviously there's so much heartbreak going on and political issues being tackled, but Pamela’s just there talking about the incredible tiramisu she had the other week. It was really interesting to read those letters."

In the run-up to inhibiting Deborah Mitford – who became a writer like her sister Nancy, and the Duchess of Devonshire – Orla Hill had the added benefit of reading her character’s memoir, which was published in 2010.

"I think it must be so intimidating to have your eldest sister be Nancy Mitford, and then you're like, 'Do you know what? I’ll write a couple of books,'" said Hill. "Her biography – it's called Wait for Me – talks about the universal youngest sibling experience.

"I just think that Deborah Mitford was gonna do what she was gonna do, and she wasn't going to let herself get too wrapped up in what everyone else was doing.

"You just try and read everything you can," added the star. "I think looking at pictures as well and seeing the mischief between these young women growing up together [was helpful]."

Outrageous will air on U&DRAMA and U from Thursday 19th June.

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