They were the explicit photographs that landed her the nickname ‘the dirty duchess’ and became a key piece of evidence in her high-profile divorce.
Now the moment the Duchess of Argyll performed a sexual act on a man in her Mayfair apartment has been recreated in near-graphic detail in TV’s racy drama about her life.
In Monday’s episode of BBC’s A Very British Scandal, Claire Foy, who plays Margaret, can be seen entering her bathroom where a naked man is stood waiting.
A Very British Scandal: Now the moment the Duchess of Argyll performed a sexual act on a man in her Mayfair apartment has been recreated in near-graphic detail in TV’s racy drama about her life
As she lowers her body, she wears black lingerie with a string full of pearls and hands him the camera.
The following scene shows Miss Foy (37), opening a letter that contains explicit images.
This three-part series, that began on Boxing Day, tells Margaret’s real story. She was embroiled in scandal after her divorce case revealed her wild sex lives.
She dominated the front pages as her divorce from the Duke of Argyll (portrayed by Paul Bettany) played out – featuring accusations of forgery, theft, violence, drugtaking, secret recording, bribery and the pictures.
Wow: In Monday’s episode of BBC’s A Very British Scandal, Claire Foy, who plays Margaret, can be seen entering her bathroom where a naked man is stood waiting
OMG: Wearing black lingerie and a string of pearls, she hands him the camera as she lowers herself down his body
The first episode of A Very British Scandal took viewers by surprise as they watched The Crown’s Claire Foy enjoy three sex scenes in the first 30 minutes of the first episode – with two different men.
In the first of three episodes, Margaret (Foy), a woman who seduced a man during a dinner event, then romped at her Scottish stately home with her husband and in her parent’s cleaning cabinet.
The revelation comes two days after Foy made a public statement about her dislike for sex scenes. She said they make Foy feel ‘exploited and the worst thing she can do.
Racy: Claire can be seen in several scenes of the episode stripping down
The photo: In the following scene, Miss Foy, 37, opens a letter containing the explicit images
Only 16 minutes into episode 1, Margaret met a stranger while attending a party.
The identity of the man is not revealed to the audience, however, later scenes with a friend suggest that Margaret would often sleep with the men she meets on the same night.
26 minutes later, the second sex scene was shown. It shows Margaret arriving at Inveraray Castle in Scotland, the home of Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll.
16 Minutes In: A Very British Scandal premiered its first episode on Sunday, April 16, 2013. Viewers were taken by surprise when Claire enjoyed three sex scenes with two men in just 30 minutes.
Louise Timpson was still his wife at the time of the initial meeting.
The headless man was who?
The ‘Headless Man’ in the salacious pictures of the duchess disclosed in the divorce case has never been definitively identified. Society ached to know his identity, and the duke was even required to pose naked to prove the torso wasn’t his.
Margaret (pictured) carried the secret information about the ‘headless men’ to her grave
The suspects included Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr and German diplomat Sigismund von Braun, but chief among them was Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Defence and Winston Churchill’s son-in-law.
A Channel 4 documentary in 2000 claimed that the ‘Headless Man’ was in fact two different men – Sandys and Fairbanks Jr – but it seems this may be one secret Margaret carried with her to her grave.
However, the Duke was not able to stop his guest from sharing a bed with him. He asked Margaret to marry him shortly after having sex.
At 29 minutes and 29 seconds, Margaret meets Ian for the approval of her marriage.
Before they head up to Margaret’s parents, they make an uncharacteristic stop in a kitchen cupboard.
The series could feature a few sexual scenes, as Foy stated before the launch that she doesn’t like filming them and feels ‘exposed and exploited’.
Foy told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: ‘It’s a really hard line because basically you do feel exploited when you are a woman and you are having to perform fake sex on screen. You feel exploited.
It’s tough, it’s hard to believe. This makes you feel naked. You feel exposed.
Users on Twitter commented how uncomfortable it was for them to see the three sex scenes while older relatives were present.
@strutcakes stated that watching A Very British Scandal before my parents was not a good idea. The awkwardness of watching sex scenes with your parents in the same room as TV is not only for those who are 37 but also for anyone else. Many thanks @PhelpsieSarah
Louise Teboul also said the following: “Watching A Very British Scandal together with my mother in law and OH [other half]I didn’t know there would be so many sex. It was awkward.
Attguest added: “I forgot how awkward watching sex scenes between parents until A Very British Scandal tonight.”
Michael Wave user @SzMarsupial joked, “Sending thoughts, prayers and thoughts to all other people who are now trapped into watching a very British scam with their families, without realising the amount of sex involved.”
Margaret, born in 1912 as the sole child of an independent Scottish millionaire, was described by Lyndsy Spence, her biographer, as “a daddy’s daughter with an absent father and living with a jealous mom who tried to remind Margaret about every fault she had”.
24 MINUTES IN: The second sex scene took place 26 minutes into the episode. This shows Margaret at Inveraray Castle, Scotland, where Ian Campbell, Duke of Argyll, lives.
Margaret was thus born with a stammer, which Lionel Logue (King George VI’s speech therapist) treated.
When she was 15 years old, David Niven (the future star of the movie) got her pregnant on holiday in the Isle of Wight. Her father then sent her secretly to London for an abortion.
Young, beautiful, she became a household name. Princes and millionaires wooed her, inviting Cary Grant, Noel Coward, and J Paul Getty to their Mayfair homes. Before her marriage to Charles Sweeny as an Irish-American stockbroker, she had four more failed engagements.
29 MINUTES – The third scene of sex is just 29 minutes long. Margaret and her father meet Margaret in a kitchen cupboard to discuss their plans for marriage.
The couple’s 1933 wedding was glamorous. Traffic was stopped for 3 hours at the Brompton Oratory, west London. Another 2,000 people gathered to admire the 28ft train that Norman Hartnell had made.
Despite having a daughter, Frances, and a son, Brian, together, the couple’s relationship broke down after 14 years, with Margaret claiming all Charlie wanted in a spouse was a ‘pretty brainless doll’ and they divorced in 1947.
In 1951 she wed Ian Douglas Campbell, the 11th Duke of Argyll, after meeting him on a train at Paris’s Gare du Nord station in 1949. He’d pursued her relentlessly, knowing she was rich while his own estate was worth nothing.
She took pity on him and convinced her father to give him £100,000 to restore his family seat in Scotland, Inveraray Castle. He signed the Deed of Gift that included various goods as security and then promised to marry her once his divorce was finalized.
The couple enjoyed luxury living, including skiing in St Moritz and sailing in the Bahamas. They also spent their time holidaying in St Tropez. The duchess was a favorite of fashion designers and socialites.
However, the Duke soon revealed his true colours with accusations of addiction to drugs and gambling as well as an vile temper.
They had previously agreed to live apart and have an open marriage. Bettany asked, “How many men are you married to?” Foy answers, “How many females do you have?”
The duke was furious that his extravagant lifestyle wasn’t being supported by the duchess and hired private detectives in order to track his wife. He requested divorce.
The case revolved around a series of blurry Polaroid photos taken through the bathroom mirror in the Mayfair apartment. They showed the duchess wearing only her trademark triple string pearls. Some pictures show her entertaining an unknown lover, whose head was cropped from the photo. He became known as “Headless man”
She allegedly paid a locksmith for access to her private papers.
However, the prehistoric legal system and her many ‘lovers’ who were homosexual prevented the duchess revealing her side without being imprisoned.
A Very British Scandal focuses especially on the attitudes towards women at the time, as Margaret was vilified throughout the divorce battle for refusing to go quietly, despite being betrayed by friends and publicly shamed by society.
It took four years after he filed for divorce for a verdict to be reached, which granted it to the duke on the grounds of Margaret’s adultery.
She was ordered to pay most of the £50,000 legal bill. Six weeks after his remarriage, nothing was made public about his personal affairs.
Margaret, Frances’ daughter, fell out after the case. Frances had never wanted Margaret to support the divorce. Her fortune was reduced due to Margaret’s extravagant lifestyle and poor investments. Although she eventually reconciled herself with Frances after the case, Margaret lost her home. She was then placed in London’s nursing home, where she later died in 1993.
The original photograph showed Margaret – wearing nothing but a string of pearls – involved in a sexual act with a ‘headless’ man in her home.
The photo had been cropped at the man’s neck and for years his identity was unknown.
However, a documentary in 2000 identified him as Cabinet minister and Winston Churchill’s son-in-law Duncan Sandys.
Tonight’s final episode of A Very British Scandal airs on BBC1 at 9pm.
Signature pearls Margaret’s necklace (above) was featured in nude photographs taken by her husband