HISTORICAL - BRITISH - MASTERPIECE THEATRE batch5/20260908_161041

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## HEADING: HISTORICAL - BRITISH - MASTERPIECE THEATRE

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1245B.
JANE SEYMOUR ANTHONY ANDREWS
THE WOMAN HE LOVED
He gave up an empire because he couldn't give up her love.
Based upon the true story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
A CBS SUNDAY MOVIE
"8 PM CBS 6 5/20

4/3/88 THE WOMAN HE LOVED
A stylish re-creation of the heralded "love story of the century."
In 1936, Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated his throne, saying in a national radio broadcast that "I have found it impossible ... to discharge my duties ... without the help and support of the woman I love." She was Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcee the monarch was forbidden to marry. Nevertheless, the following year they were wed and as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived a peripatetic, privileged life until the duke's death in 1972.
At the outset of this 1988 TV-movie, the duchess (played by Jane Seymour) is readying for her husband's funeral in England. The preparations spark flashbacks recounting their relationship, which begins in 1930 when the future king (Anthony Andrews) was the suave Prince of Wales and Wallis an ingenious charmer in her second marriage. As dramatized here, their mutual infatuation leads to romance and, inevitably, a monarchical crisis.
Filmed in England and France. Aunt Bessie: Olivia de Haviland. Simpson: Tom Wilkinson. Thelma: Lucy Gutteridge. Alice: Julie Harris. Churchill: Robert Hardy. Baldwin: David Wafer. Queen Mary: Phyllis Calvert (2 hrs.)

The Late Duke's Poison Pen
The Royal Feud lives on. More than half a century after Edward VIII gave up his throne for a twice-divorced American woman, the bitterness of the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor continues to seep out. Last week the Daily Mail published excerpts from "The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor," a posthumous collection of letters between Edward and his duchess, Wallis. The duke and his wife referred to the present queen mother, his sister-in-law, as "Cookie": she looked like a Scottish cook, they said. They code named Queen Elizabeth II "Shirley Temple, Jr."
Like less celebrated families, the Windsors fought over money. The duke cut a deal with the family when he abdicated, but still had to beg for extra funds. "It's hell to be even this much dependent on these ice-veined bitches," he wrote. Queen Mary's death in 1953 only deepened the Windsors' anger. The duke was allowed to attend the funeral but Wallis had to stay behind in France. "What a smug stinking lot my relations are," he wrote to her, "and you've never seen such a seedy worn-out bunch of old hags most of them have become." The duke pleaded with his family to recognize his marriage and invite the couple to tea, "to swallow the Windsors just once, however bitter they think it's going to taste." No invitation came. Finally, as the duke lay dying in Paris, Queen Elizabeth, on an official trip to France, stopped in for a brief chat. It wasn't the warmest of family visits. The British Embassy in Paris told the duke's doctor it would be proper for the ex-king to die before the queen arrived or after she left. He was not, under any circumstances, to die while the sovereign was in France.
Bitter exiles: The Windsors

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII. w/Charles Laughton. (BW) (1933)
PM Mag. THE DUCHESS OF WINDSOR. 8/30/88
EDWARD & MRS. SIMPSON. Duke & Duchess of Windsor. (1961)
WINDSORS/QUEEN ELIZABETH II. 4/7/90
QUEEN MOTHER IN PERSON. 7/22/91

1245c. A VERY BRITISH COUP: 1/15/89
It's the recent future and British voters have just ended a long spell of Tory government by voting in the Labourites. Their new Prime Minister, Harry Perkins, is a dyed-in-the-wool Red who ran on the slogan "Power to the people and Yanks go home." Now installed in No. 10 Downing Street, Harry intends to keep his campaign promises. So begins "A Very British Coup," a mesmerizing two-part Masterpiece Theatre, directed by Mick Jackson ("The Race for the Double Helix") and starring Ray McAnally (in a terrific performance as Harry). Tonight, Harry comes to power with British industry in a shambles, the exchequer running on empty and plenty of influential people scheming to drive him out of power. The most notable of his foes: a venal London press baron, the President of the United States—and the head of Harry's own Secret Intelligence Service. See the Close-up on A-50. (9 PM 7)

Masterpiece Theatre: Beset by foes on all sides, Labour Prime Minister Harry Perkins (Ray McAnally) fights for his political life in the spellbinding conclusion of "A Very British Coup." If his enemies can't bring him down with conventional dirty tricks, they are not above resorting to treason. Stick around for the confrontation scene between McAnally (as the ex-steelworker become PM) and Alan MacNaughtan (as the aristocratic chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service).

ALL PASSION SPENT, 1/15/89
A delightful performance by the wondrous Wendy Hiller lifts the Masterpiece Theatre production of All Passion Spent. Set in 1930, this leisurely three-parter casts Hiller as the recent widow of a British prime minister. After 68 years of marriage, she is now about to make her own way in the wide, wide world. (9 PM 7)

And check out All Passion Spent. The wonderful English actress Wendy Hiller plays an 85-year-old woman whose husband, a former prime minister, has just died. The way she goes about pleasing only herself, after all these years, is an absolute joy to watch. PBS.

3-Part Mini-series.
How Made: STAR TREK RAMONA

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1245D.
PATRICK HAMILTON'S
The CHARMER
4/30/89 (6-Parts)
Top of the Week...

PBS comes to the fore with a pair of absorbing dramas. Nigel Havers, a familiar face to Masterpiece Theatre viewers, has the title role in "The Charmer" (Sun.), a new six-part tale about a dapper, yet dastardly chap who, in Part 1, is intent on separating a rich widow from her fortune. Rosemary Leach portrays the veddy proper Joan Plumleigh-Bruce, who throws not only caution, but her reputation and her bank account to the wind when roguish Ralph Gorse (Havers) enters her life.

1245E. BY THE SWORD DIVIDED, 3/23/86 (9-Parts)
the Way They Were
"It's rather like North and South, except it's the English civil war," says Sharon Maughan (below), the star of By the Sword Divided. The PBS Masterpiece Theatre miniseries (premiering March 23) "illustrates how the civil war [1642-51] splits the country by focusing on one family. My [character's] husband is loyal to the Puritans. In the 17th century, a wife had to stick by her husband automatically, which is difficult for a modern woman to understand. I was told this woman was strong, but she had to stop everything when her husband commanded." But life wasn't all glum. The period "was quite raunchy and the literature very explicit." And the series? "Full of emotional intrigue."

1245F. BY THE SWORD DIVIDED, (Concl.)
SILAS MARNER 3/22/87
BY THE SWORD DIVIDED- Sequel. (Concl.)

1245G. BY SWORD DIVIDED: SEQUEL. (1640-1660) (6-Parts) 9/2/88 (English Civil War) (Concluded on tape 1245f. above)