Season 1 • Episode 13
LatestLillie returns to America, accompanied by young army officer Captain d'Albani. Although still betrothed to Hugo, Lillie keeps company with the Captain until he's called to war in 1914. The outbreak of fighting sees Louis lose his coveted Admiralty, but leads him to a relationship with his illegitimate daughter, Jeanne Marie. No longer the toast of America, Lillie finds herself seeking amusement in New York by paying her dashing young partners fifty cents a dance. With the war over, Lillie moves to the South of France, where she's surrounded by photos and memories of an illustrious past. As her time draws near, the only regret of her successful life is the love of a family.
The affair that shook Victorian society to its core: he was the Prince of Wales, the future monarch; she was a professional beauty, who became a royal bedmate. Follow the fascinating life of the Dean of Jersey's daughter from her modest childhood to her emergence as one of the most celebrated beauties of her time. Lillie's liaison with the heir to the throne marked only the beginning of a remarkable, scandalous and daring series of adventures in open defiance of accepted morality imposed by Victorian and Edwardian society.
Acting
Francesca Annis transforms Lillie from ingenue to survivor — devastating.
Costume
Literal acres of silk, scandal, and sartorial revenge.
Production
1978 BBC budget stretched to absolute breaking point — and it works.
Creator
David Butler
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Francesca Annis was 33 playing Lillie from 15 to 70 — the makeup department invented new sins.
Lillie Langtry essentially invented the celebrity perfume and appeared in ads while still royal mistress — the original influencer grift.
GB
