Profumo: a scandal that keeps giving, even after 50 years

The Trial of Christine Keeler shows that even those of us alive in 1963 have much still to learn

You might not think, more than 50 years after it all happened, that there would be much more to say about the Profumo scandal of 1963. But you would be wrong, as a fresh generation has been learning this week. And, believe it or not, there is a lot more still to come.

The latest episode of The Trial of Christine Keeler, BBC One’s dramatisation of the scandal, airs on Sunday. The central achievement of the series is to place three confident but exploited women – Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies and John Profumo’s wife, Valerie Hobson – at the heart of the story. The performances of Sophie Cookson, Ellie Bamber and Emilia Fox are the reason why even those of us who lived through the events now have something new to learn.

Continue reading...