The Trial of Christine Keeler

This 'based on true events' drama is a creative imagining of the 'sleezy' world of sex and power in the British government in the early nineteen sixties. It is well written, cast and acted with stellar performances from well known British actors such as James Norton, Ben Miles, Michael Maloney, Anton Lesser and Tim McInnerny.

"They decided to punish us and then decided on the crime" just about sums up the message of this powerful drama. It left me with a strong sense that, though we can blame individuals or institutions, in the end it's we, the public, who decide the fate of those we love to hate.

On reflection this drama does something rather clever. It puts us in the shoes of the teenage Christine Keeler and shows us how she saw Stephen as a trustworthy friend - in many ways, just as vulnerable as she was.

In fact this drama should have been called 'The Trial of Stephen Ward' - as this is by far the most dramatic part of the story. James Norton is fabulous as the bohemian doctor who is presented as an artistic innocent who 'could not hate anyone'. At first I found him creepy and annoying (please don't say 'little baby' again!) - but he grew on me as a free spirit who is authentic in his friendships - helping me understand how the young Christine could fall for him and trust him.

We like clear cut lines on who we should be rooting for. But in this historical social drama the boundaries are blurred - just like in real life. However - we have to remind ourselves that all Stephen's friends are either young girls or powerful men... and we can't ignore that he was - whether he (or she) knew it or not - grooming them...

It's a great thought provoking and disturbing production and I thoroughly recommend it.

I don't know how a audience can give assessment to a series by just one or two episodes. But some of the low score comments really irritates me. People may get wrong impression basing on such rash verdict.To avoid this, I feel obligated to give my assessment earlier than my usual way. It makes a good beginning in my eyes.I got at least 2 concerns about the story. The first of them is the mysterious identity of Stiffen, Why he cumulated the secrets of the politicians?for personal interest or for a national one. The second one is whether the story will end up as Jeffrey Epstein. By the way,I'm a audience from China.

Some of these reviews bewilder me. The story is well,and accurately told and beautifully acted. It really catches the spirit of the time, a time I remember.

At first I enjoyed it but thought it was nothing special but it warmed up nicely to the point the last 2 episodes were near perfection. A strong telling of a very worthwile true story. James Norton in particular was fantastic.

Profumo was the scandal that had everything: the minister! the spy! the call girl! the man in the mask! Ostensibly, this drama focuses on Christine Keeler, the primary young woman involved in the scandal, but like most latter-day accounts come to concentrate almost inevitably on the figure of the pimp. In fact, Stephen Ward wasn't really a pimp, more of a scapegoat, a social climbing osteopath who traded for status, not for money, introducing pretty young girls to an elite social circle. On one hand, it's hard to see his actions (and, indeed, the scandal in toto) as amounting to very much: men like to be around pretty girls, and rich and glamorous men can manage this, maybe even without having to explicitly pay - and it's nonsense to pretend that there's never any transactional quality to sex. On the other hand, there might seem to be something wrong when, in words attributed to Valerie Profumo in this drama, "life as a teenage girl is like being invited to a wonderful picnic, then discovering that you're the sandwich." Ward is hardly an admirable figure; but after the affair had nearly brought down the government, he was (absurdly) prosecuted for living off immoral earnings, and, abandoned by his high society friends, committed suicide.

'The Trial of Christine Keeler' is not bad, but it is quite long - the film 'Scandal' dealt with the same material more succinctly. It's portrayal of Keeler is persuasive but not so interesting; James Norton plays Ward, and although at first I disliked the performance (not because it was bad, simply because I loved John Hurt's more sympathetic performance in 'Scandal'), it grew on me. Some of the best content is on its depiction of the Profumos, in the background in 'Scandal', but here we get a compelling portrait of Jack's sense of entitlement, while also seeing how his marriage managed to work, and survive in spite of public humiliation.

Today the Profumo affair might seem to belong to a more innocent age, when we expected our supposed betters to behave (or at least, to misbehave in private) - it seems surprising that a tenuous connection between a minister and a spy could have been enough to ultimately play a large part in the resignation of a previously popular prime minister. But the era of "me too" has not just exposed stories of genuinely monstrous behaviour, but also raised questions about how women still have to negotiate a world where men hold all the cards. Ward was no Weinstein; but some of the issues are the same.