The Telegraph – 1st May, 2015

Richard E. Grant is to play the Duke of Wellington in a new BBC series detailing his complicated love life.

Richard E Grant is to star as the Duke of Wellington
in a new BBC programme Photo: BBC.

By Hannah Furness, Arts Correspondent.

He is remembered by a grateful nation for his military exploits, success in battle, and political leadership.

Now, the BBC is to tell the lesser-known story of the Duke of Wellington’s tangled love-life, as he is resurrected on screen by Richard E Grant.

Grant, who returns to the BBC after a stint on American television, is to play the lothario Duke, as he navigates between a wife he found unattractive and his numerous mistresses.

The story will be pieced together using letters and diaries kept by Wellington and his lovers, suggesting he was in fact something of a cad.

The documentary-drama, which features descendants of the Duke and his wife, as well as contributions from historians, will see Grant bring the complicated private passions of Wellington to life.

It will see details of his “vigorous sexual appetite” and “veritable harem” of female admirers laid bare, with one contributor concluded he was a “bad husband and inadequate father”.

The 1st Duke of Wellington
(Fine Art Images / Heritage-Images / TopFoto).

Lines he wrote in surviving personal documents will be read aloud by Grant, who appears throughout the one-hour-long, one-off drama in period costume.

It is the first time he has been on the BBC since 2013, when he appeared in Doctor Who. He has since appeared in US series Girls and as an art dealing visitor to Downton Abbey.

The programme, Wellington: The Iron Duke Unmasked, will be broadcast on BBC Two on May 10, and is intended to reveal the secrets behind the politician the public know and admire.

It will form part of a season around the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, which will also include documentary about Napoleon and an exploration of Wellington’s time as Prime Minister.

Grant said: “This is a part of European history that I’ve always wanted to know more about.

Richard E. Grant as Wellington (BBC).

“It’s been an honour to be able to play the Duke of Wellington in this dramatic retelling of his personal accounts.
“I’m thrilled the BBC is commemorating this important part of our history and that I could be a part of it.”

The programme will also feature Wellington’s wife, Kitty Pakenham, scantily-clad courtesan Harriette Wilson, and friends including Harriet Arbuthnot, Princess Lieven, the Russian ambassadors wife, and Lady Frances Shelley.

It will tell the story of the unfortunate Kitty, whom Wellington fell in love with before being dispatched to India as a young man.

After her family rejected his proposal, he returned from battle with better prospects and insisted upon marrying her before they were reunited.

Kitty Pakenham, Wellington’s wife.

When he met her, just four days before the wedding, he is said to have reported to his brother: “She’s grown damned ugly, by jove.”

As his wife remained at home, allegedly falling into depression, Wellington went on to encounters with Harriette Wilson, the courtesan, before behaving – according to one historian – like a “rutting stag” in Paris.

There, he bedded Napoleon’s former mistress and was, according to the programme, surrounded by “a veritable harem of aristocratic women united in their adoration of him”.

The programme will contain contributions from historians Peter Snow, Julian Spilsbury, Eliza Pakenham, a relative of Kitty, and Charles Wellesley, the 9th Duke of Wellington.

The courtesan Harriette Wilson.

Other show highlights to mark the anniversary include a three-part series about Napoleon presented by historian Andrew Roberts for BBC Two, a new play for BBC Radio 4 set in the two days running up to the battle, and documentary about the world of Napoleonic re-enactment.

Martin Davidson, BBC head of specialist factual commissioning TV said: “The Battle of Waterloo was one of the most important battles of the 19th century and these programmes across the BBC promise to both mark this significant anniversary and help viewers gain a greater understanding of this defining moment in our history.”

Wellington: The Iron Duke Unmasked will be broadcast on BBC Two at 9pm on Sunday, May 10.