Doctor Who Vs. Scandal

Shown on Talking Pictures TV last night,

this British film drama is a fictionalised

account of the Profumo affair that
rocked the British government in 1963,

and premiered at the Cannes Film

Festival.

Dr. Stephen Ward (depicted here by John

 Hurt) courted the rich and famous at his London practice, and even moved in royal

circles. He lived on the Astor's family

estate of Cliveden, and in 1961 at a party

there, Ward introduced married Tory
minister John Profumo (portrayed by Ian

McKellen) to showgirl Christine Keeler

(Joanne Whalley). They embarked on an

affair, but Keeler was also sleeping with a

known Soviet spy, Eugene Ivanov (Jeroen Krabbe), and Ward observed there was the potential to start World War Three. Profumo (1915-2006) was forced

to resign after lying in Parliament, but Ward became the scapegoat for the

scandal. Having supplied the social elite with prostitutes, he was charged

with living off immoral earnings.

The most famous moment of the osteopath's Old Bailey trial came when

his former mistress, Mandy Rice Davis (Bridget Fonda) gave evidence.

When told that Lord Astor (Leslie Phillips) had denied paying her for sex,

she replied "Well, he would wouldn't he?" When Ward was found guilty,

the accused lay in a coma following a suicide attempt and he died days

later.

The theme song Nothing Has Been Proved was penned and produced

by Pet Shop Boys and performed by Dusty Springfield.

The first television retelling of the story, The Trial of Christine Keeler,
was shown on BBC1 in December 2019. Originally developed for TV

 in the mid 1980s, Scandal was rejected by the BBC then Channel 4,

but was eventually released by Palace Pictures  in early 1989 - it 

featured Britt Ekland, Jean Alexander, and these twelve Doctor Who

cast connections:

• McKellen provided the voice of the Great Intelligence for The Snowmen, and had a cameo in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
• Paul Brooke (DS John) voiced Toby for Big Finish's Year of the Pig (2006)
• Carry On actor Phillips voiced Robert Knox for Medicinal Purposes (2004), and Assassin in the Limelight (2008) - he worked with Hurt again in King Ralph
• Ronald [Gordon] Fraser (Marshall) was Joseph C in The Happiness Patrol
• Iain Cuthbertson (Hailsham) was Garron in The Ribos Operation
• Sarah Prince (Secretary) was Karuna in Kinda
• Raad Rawi (Aziz) voiced Prince Haasan Al-Nadyr for Who Killed Toby Kinsella? and The Dead Don't Rise (both 2016), Bishop Nicholas for Better Watch Out and Fairytale of Salzburg (both 2018), and Tubal/ Maygo/King Hiarbas of Tunis for The Phoenicians (2019)
• Malcolm Terris (Gent) was Etnin in (episode 1 of) The Dominators, and the Co-Pilot in The Horns of Nimon
• Tariq Yunus (Khan) was Cass in The Robots of Death
• Tina Simmons (Critic) made her TV debut as an Inferno Customer in The War Machines (1)
• Ralph G Morse (Punter) was a Foster in The Keeper of Traken
• camera operator Simon Archer was the cinematographer on The Lodger