Lady Agnes Holland - Keeley Hawes
The eldest daughter of the 12th Earl Towyn, Lady Agnes was reared in a very damp castle in Wales. Beautiful and aristocratic, she hasnever been well off. Despite financial hardship, and their failure to have children, her marriage to Sir Hallam has been happy and devoted. The sudden rush of new money thrills her, and she is determined to put her husband, and her home, at the heart of London high society. But even as her dreams come true, Lady Agnes is forced to digest unpalatable truths, and fight to preserve the things she holds most dear.
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Sir Hallam Holland - Ed Stoppard
Sir Hallam appears to have everything. In his mid-30s, he has risen rapidly through the ranks of the Foreign Office, and has recently inherited not just 165 Eaton Place but a considerable fortune and a baronetcy.
After a lonely childhood spent in boarding schools, he also has found deep love and solace with his wife Lady Agnes. However, he must also find room in his heart, and his home, for his formidable mother Maud, Lady Holland. The events of 1936 will challenge and change him in ways he could not have foreseen.
After a lonely childhood spent in boarding schools, he also has found deep love and solace with his wife Lady Agnes. However, he must also find room in his heart, and his home, for his formidable mother Maud, Lady Holland. The events of 1936 will challenge and change him in ways he could not have foreseen.
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Maud : Lady Holland - Dame Eileen Atkins
Maud, Lady Holland is Sir Hallam's mother, and one of the women who helped to build the Raj. A fiercely intelligent and complex woman, she spent her whole adult life in support of her husband, the late Sir Greville Holland, seeing him rise to the very top of the Indian Civil Service. Newly widowed, she returns to England to write her memoirs, and secretly hopes to build a new relationship with her grown-up son. But thirty years of distance are not easily undone, and there will be shocks and heartache along the way
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Claire Foy as Lady Persie Towyn
Lady Persephone Towyn is the 20 year-old sister of Lady Agnes.Ravishing but gauche, she has been marooned in Wales due to lack of family funds - a situation Lady Agnes is delighted to reverse. But Lady Persie’s lack of education, and the stimulation of the London scene, make for a highly combustible mix.
Dr. Blanche Mottershead - Alex Kingston
Blanche married her practical nature with her passion for history and became a noted archaeologist. After the Great War, during which she drove an ambulance in Belgium, she was involved in studies of the Rosetta Stone, and the excavation of tombs in the Valley of the Kings. However, Blanche is by no means a romantic and the endless sifting of soil has made her a pragmatist, a seeker and a speaker of the truth. Blanche loved her late sister, but had little respect for her and her lack of reverence for Maud’s memory causes friction with both Sir Hallam and Mr Amanjit, who are dismayed when the uncompromising spinster announces her intention to remain at Eaton PlaceBut Blanche has a history of her own and, when her unconventional lifestyle is exposed, she is forced to
excavate the most tender, painful corners of her soul.
excavate the most tender, painful corners of her soul.
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Lady Portia Airesford - Emilia Fox
Lady Portia Alersford, is an upper-class socialite who publishes a scandalous novel. The book gets people talking because it’s based on Portia’s lesbian relationship with Blanche (Alex Kingston). She’s aware of the scandal it might cause, but she doesn’t look too deeply at the consequences of it. She doesn’t think it will be too bad. Her feelings for Blanche overwhelm the scandal it may cause.
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