All language subtitles for The.Trial.Of.Christine.Keeler.S01E00.WEBRip.x264-ION10

[wistful piano music]

- Amanda Coe has written
the most beautiful script,

which really goes behind the
headlines

of one of the most iconic
stories of the 20th century.

- It's a tale as old as time,

and yet it feels like a
very contemporary story.

- It's a very well-known story,

involving many, many characters,

and many sides and facets of
society Britain at that time.

- And the story encapsulates a
woman

who was trapped by

society's restraints.

- How, you know, high
members of our society,

they do abuse this power that
they have.

- It's looking at the sort
of perfect storm of scandal.

- 1963, the counterculture
revolution is happening,

the hippies and the status quo,

and they have an amazing clash
of temperament and attitude.

- On the one hand,

there was this world
that was establishment,

and on the other side,

there was this world
that was a bit more free.

- This is a story about a young
woman,

and she is the catalyst for
change.

- You have old world meets new
world,

media witnesses it,

media manipulates it and
uses it to their own ends

in order to create change in
society.

- She was a young girl who
was really trying to survive,

look after her mum, have some
fun,

and became the pawn

which lead to the
resignation of John Profumo,

and the sort of downfall

for all the people who were
involved.

- She's this

angel of chaos,

where destruction just seems
to slightly follow her.

[laughs]

- [Man] Here we go.

And action.

[airy piano music]

- It's the story of
politics, sex and power,

with a young woman at the heart
of it,

who, I think, young women
and young men will relate to

in the modern world.

It doesn't feel dated, it
feels like a very modern story.

It's gripping drama, but it's
also funny,

and also, it just has the most
stellar performances in it.

And that's what really jumps
out,

it's the writing, the
performances, and the
storytelling.

It was very important to Amanda

that all of the characters
around Christine

were three-dimensional,

and Andrea's done a beautiful
job

at bringing that to life on
screen,

as well as the actors who we
chose,

who were all, I think,

all loved the story

and loved the fact that they
were playing real people,

but real people with flaws and
sides and darkness and light.

And they've all brought that
to the screen in abundance,

and it's beautiful.

- It's so interesting because,
playing role like this,

because everyone has an
opinion about her already.

Say the name Christine Keeler,

and they're like, "Oh, wow,
wow,"

and they see her as a sex
object.

She had an incredibly tough
childhood

growing up in a converted
railway carriage

that had no electricity, no
running water.

You know, she self-aborted her
child

when she was still a teenager.

Like, she had the most tragic
life.

I definitely feel a huge
amount of responsibility

to do Christine justice.

I think Christine was so
determined

that she did not want to be
ever portrayed as a victim.

Christine was not allowed a
voice.

There were so many men

that were imposing their views
onto her and their opinions,

and they decided who she was.

She was constantly manipulated,

and I think, with the amazing
kind of third wave of feminism

that we've got going on at the
moment,

it's such an exciting pivotal
moment

to be looking at history
fresh through a woman's gaze.

And we do get to see every
single ugly part of her,

the beautiful stuff,

and Amanda has written it
with such grace and dignity.

Yeah, the script just blew me
away.

- The journey in writing
the script started with

just absorbing some of the huge
amount

of material that there is,

and what happened to who and
when,

which is a big part of crunching
down

just the chronology of the story

so that you can begin to find

the really good dramatic
moments.

There was this affair,

and you know, that world
affair which brings with it

a rather, sort of whiff of
another era

that you just imagine people
drinking martini glasses

and smoking a lot, and looking
very chic.

And, you know, in truth, it was
an affair

between a middle-aged powerful
man

and a teenage, powerless young
woman.

- The terminology we use for
Christine is,

you know, she was a prostitute,
she was a call girl,

and poor Profumo, you know.

It was all that sort of rhetoric

surrounding this particular
story,

that she was the kind of wanton
woman

and he was the fallen angel,

and that's obviously just not
the case.

And what's kind of fresh about
this story

is we take it through the girls'
eyes.

And it's through Mandy and
Christine,

and they are young women,

and no one ever talks about the
fact

that Profumo was in his late 40s

and Stephen was in his mid-40s,

and they were teenagers.

And that's never really been
addressed.

- Christine's story as written
by Amanda

is very much about somebody
who refuses to be contained.

She had a vulnerability
because of her upbringing,

but just such a tremendous
strength.

Visually, we came up with
slightly different ideas

for how we would handle the
different worlds in the show.

So, Christine's world,

the aesthetic was that
it should feel quite

intimate, subjective, realistic,
in a way,

within the confines of
the genre and the period.

And then, with the other
worlds that we were creating,

like Profumo's world,
Profumo at home with Valerie,

and Profumo in the House of
Commons,

we took a slightly more elegant
approach,

and the camera tended to
be more on track and dolly,

and sliding and gliding.

I think when you go from world
to world,

hopefully, those choices
have a nice effect

on how you experience
the character as well.

- We are predominantly
handheld with Christine.

So, in her world, that's one
of the decisions we made,

really just to,

so that the camera was
representative of her energy.

And when we're in the House of
Commons,

or wherever it might be, we're
on track,

and you know, we're a
little bit more considered

in the way we're moving the
camera.

And again, it was just to
sort of represent that energy.

And also, we tend to tilt
the lens up a little bit,

become a little bit
more, kind of objective

with the establishment.

And then when we were
in anti-establishment,

we would be sort of in closer,
handheld, and moving around.

It'd become a little bit more
subjective.

And then, obviously, as we
get later into the series,

the energies of those
two worlds have collided,

and we're seeing the aftermath.

- There was a romance.

She was very impressed,

but I think, from someone from
such a low social standing,

she had no idea who Jack Profumo
was when she first met him.

She just happened to

kind of get involved with the
wrong guy.

- I play Jack, or John Profumo.

The title's really fantastic, I
think,

"The Trial of Christine Keeler,"

it's not "The Profumo Affair."

It's chiefly a story about
how young women of that time,

particularly Christine
Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies,

were treated when they
tried to get on in life

and better themselves,

and try and take control for
themselves over their destiny.

I think what he found in
Christine

was a sort of closeness and a
sense of fun

that I think he may have found

lacking in his and Valerie's
marriage at the time.

- I think Valerie shows such
dignity throughout the series,

and she holds it all in for so
long,

and there is so many
things which are unspoken,

that after the scandal,

she sort of survived the
infidelity,

but it was the exposure,
obviously because of the media,

that's what she found difficult,

because it was humiliating.

There's a sort of female empathy

for how Christine was treated,

and that she was a sort of pawn

in a power game, and
that's professional power,

but also sexual power that men
had over women at that time.

- What was really interesting in
the drama

was seeing how many of the
themes

that are very current at
the moment with MeToo,

just playing out, you know, to
the power of 10 at that time,

which has to do with

shutting people's stories down.

One thing that really struck me

about revisiting this
material and making it now

is how young those girls were.

And that, at the time, was
not seen as anything, really.

- What the drama as a whole
shows

is that 1963 was a very
explosive year because

the strange and bizarre things
that happened to Christine

to mean that this scandal
happened

meant that the press were
never the same again.

People no longer treated
politicians

with the level of kind of
respect or deference, really,

they just didn't sort of,

they started to question them
all,

and the government changed.

You know, it did bring the
government down largely.

- Christine and Stephen first
meet

when she is dancing at Murray's
Club.

I don't think Stephen was an out
for her,

but she was definitely
attracted by this man

who seemed to have a lot of
power, incredibly charismatic,

and that was his skill, kind
of bringing people together.

She was definitely used by him
to kind of entertain guests

and things like that,
but she did love him.

- So, when Stephen arrives in
her life,

her assumption is that he's
one of these sugar daddies,

and what he sees in her

when she's this unformed,
crude, young 17 year-old,

but inside is this power,

and this, as we said, this
femininity,

this beauty which exudes from
her,

which he kind of wants to have
himself,

he wants to be a part of, he
wants to channel her power.

It's such an extraordinary
and complex relationship

to excavate, and it's
what most actors crave.

It makes total sense for us

to hear this story from
Christine's point of view.

We know what it was like
to be a man in the 1960s,

we know the old boys' club,
and the ins and outs of it,

but we don't know what it
was like for a young woman,

partly victim, partly
vanguard, partly trailblazer.

Right now, whilst women
are being empowered

in the modern world,

we need to understand that

and Christine's journey
is a wonderful, delicate,

complex way of understanding
that.

- Mandy always knew that she
wanted to be,

you know, married to a
millionaire, living in Chelsea,

with a Jaguar.

Whereas Christine was much
more of a survivalist,

and I think that's what kind of
attracts

the two girls together.

But also, ultimately,
what kind of makes them

have a lot of friction.

- Mandy, [chuckles] she's crazy.

She has this incredible hunger

for success that kind of
leads her through life.

These were two young girls

who kind of turned on its head

what was socially accepted of
them.

They said well, no, why
can't we have fun, too?

Which I think was so brilliant.

And because of that, they were
punished by the government,

and so was Stephen Ward.

Mandy and Christine have
this such close relationship

that is so gorgeous that
we see at the start.

You know, how they become,
they're kind of two young girls

who are so free-spirited
and who run about together,

just having fun.

And particularly the Wimpole
Mews

when they have the most fun with
Stephen.

- When we meet Christine
and Lucky in the show,

they've broken up and now it's
quite volatile and violent.

Lucky's appearing where he's not
wanted

and trying to talk to her,
trying to get back with her,

and so, yeah, it leads to an
altercation.

That story develops,

and then spills into the
other story with Profumo,

and becomes a massive, massive
scandal.

You know, when these things
happen,

they're easily forgotten about

with the generations that
come on if they're not read,

the stories aren't retold.

And with distance from the time,

you get more clarity,
you get more perspective.

And so, hopefully, what we've
done

is found a more objective
look at what happened,

how this young woman was
portrayed in the media,

what she was going through,
the mistakes she made.

She was a young woman who was
expected

to sort of know it all
and do right by everyone,

especially all these older men.

Now we're able to see how
incredibly unfair that was to
her.

I think the audience can
expect, hopefully, authenticity,

and hopefully be moved and
entertained at the same time.

- I think having female
directors, with Andrea and
Leanne,

and having, you know, a lot
of heads of departments,

producers, involved who are
female

has been the right
thing to do, absolutely,

with this production, which is

so focused on the female
side of this story.

[somber music]

- I think the Christine
Keeler that we're unpacking,

the real Christine Keeler
that we're shining the lens on

in this drama,

is a really complicated young
woman.

And that's what drew me and
Doug, Leanne,

and the majority of people
who came to the show.

She had a kind of real sense
of justice, of her own agency,

but didn't have the power
to have her own agency.

And I think that particular
period,

you know, women didn't have
their own bank accounts,

they couldn't have their own
mortgages.

It was all very much the
patriarchy,

very, very kind of oppressive,

so she was a character that
really rallied against that,

and she is a wrecking ball.
[chuckles]

You know, and that's what's
very compelling about her.

And I just think Sophie brings
an incredible energy to that.

- What interests me about
Amanda's script was just the,

first of all, Christine's point
of view.

Being it sort of felt,

felt like a very feminist
retelling of the tale,

and it felt a little bit
revisionist, which was helpful.

Yeah, what I think what's
sort of interesting

about the story for a modern
audience today is that,

you know, back in 1962 or 1963,

when this whole scandal broke,

the idea of a powerful
politician
having sex a young woman

was scandalous and considered
to be morally corrupt.

That sort of notion of
establishment power,

I think, is still strongly
there today in a different way,

because we're not so
scandalized anymore by sex.

So the world's obviously
changed,

but in terms of the
vulnerability of people

who think that they have
any sort of power whatsoever

up against very, very
powerful establishments,

I think is something that
is still extremely relevant.

- I think it was
unimaginably overwhelming.

I mean, even if we think in
terms now

of what that would feel
like to a 19 year-old now.

Come to that at a time when,
really,

the attention paid to
Christine and Mandy Rice-Davies

in the press and in all the
attention surrounding them

had been unprecedented,

so there was no model for her to
look to

about what this would feel like.

- This is a story about women,

written, directed, produced by
women,

and it is significant,

and it does make a difference.

- Brilliant heads of
departments,

Inma doing incredible make-up
and hair,

every single day with an
enormous cast.

And the attention to detail,

and Pam's costumes are just
magnificent.

- I think the harder
challenges of the show,

I mean, we have to change

nearly all the women hair colors
for this.

So, Emilia has to change her
color,

Rosalind, Ellie, Sophie,
like, most of them.

But then, like, the men have
end up being into make up

more time than the women.

In the 60s, so the hair is
really full.

Because sometimes with the
ladies,

you just put a piece on
and then that's done,

which the men, every
single man, have so much.

- I found out that that period

didn't really have what
we consider a 60s look,

it's more of sort of a 50s look.

So, having looked at images of
Keeler

and what she was wearing,

you kind of got the sense

that she had this kind of 50s
silhouette,

and they all did, really.

I think that we only have
ever seen one side of her

through all those news
reels and photographs

and stuff like that.

And what this script brought out

was kind of three sides
to her, I think, really.

Which was predominantly the
side we've never seen before,

was the whole life she
had in Notting Hill.

And then you had the images
of her sort of dressed up,

you know, when she was
going out with the guys

and stuff like that, there's a
rich man.

And then you had her court sort
of stuff.

So, for me, there was kind
of three sections to her

kind of character.

- You know, there are a lot

of very strong women leading
this,

and you know, it's my job is
simply,

it's not as a male
cinematographer,

it's simply as a
cinematographer.

To be respectful of these
other filmmakers in the room,

and very much sort of

help tell their,

you know, get that voice
and tell their story.

- With this interpretation,
what I take from it,

is that it is not just about the
scandal.

And I feel that having six
parts to tell this story

allows us to highlight

those very sort of human
reactions, human emotions.

- I think it's a really
exciting version of this story.

I think it's the version
for now, definitely.

[pensive, emotional music]

- These characters are
so real and so relatable,

that I think everyone will be
able

to take something from it.

- It had sex and glamor,

and lies, and

drugs, and violence, and
espionage, and politics,

and hypocrisy, and race, and
class.

- It's a human story
that we all go through.

It's about finding your place in
the world

and not knowing where you
belong.

It's about having your heart
broken,

having to stand up, even
when you've been beaten down,

and get back up and face the
world.

I can't think of any story more
universal.