Rating: TV-14 | Episodes: 6 | Runtime: 40 minutes
Release Date: June 18th, 2025 (UK/USA)
Studio: BritBox
Creator(s): Sarah Williams

A stupidly small world.

Narrated by Nancy Mitford (Bessie Carter), the eldest of “Favre” (James Purefoy’s David Freeman-Mitford) and “Muv’s” (Anna Chancellor’s Sydney Bowles Mitford) seven children, our introduction to the family comes with the scintillating tease that one of the six sisters will turn out to be the most hated woman in Britain. It’s a bold declaration that holds great intrigue—even if my guess for the reason why centered on the presumption that these were simply debutantes getting into tabloid troubles. After all, a woman daring to ask for a divorce to be with the man she loves would technically be a big enough scandal for infamy back then.

As Sarah Williams soon fleshes out during the first season of “Outrageous” (based on Mary S. Lovell’s book The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family), however, there’s a lot more to this brood’s story than money. In fact, there’s hardly any money considering the market crash following World War I has left finances in such dire straits that the Mitfords are forced to lease out their estate during the summer months while staying in their “damp” London flat instead. Diana (Joanna Vanderham) mustn’t worry as she married rich and both Tom (Toby Regbo) and Pam (Isobel Jesper Jones) have jobs, but the others rely on the status of Favre’s lordship to stay on solid ground.

Yes, even Nancy, despite her blossoming career as a writer, since her status being “unmarried” (because her beau refuses to propose) allows her to stay at home while using her income for luxury. The other three girls (Shannon Watson’s Unity, Zoe Brough’s Jessica, and Orla Hill’s Deborah) are still teens, each varying years away from hitting public life themselves for the chase to capture a husband’s affections. So, we get a bit of everything as far as maturity, generational divide, rebelliousness, and contrarianism go. Nancy’s relationship is a comedy of errors (everyone wondering if her boyfriend might prefer men), Diana’s love life is a dramatic powder keg, and the rest do their best to survive the tumultuous era.

That’s where things get interesting. Because the man Diana loves isn’t just any old homewrecker. No, Oswald Mosley (Joshua Sasse) is the leader of the British Union of Fascists. It might not mean much to the characters in the first episode, but Williams’ timeline quickly begins to push towards the inevitable outbreak of World War II. So, we know the danger of his politics and wince as Diana listens, absorbs, and ultimately parrots his rhetoric. We also begin to realize “most hated woman in Britain” is probably not just going to be the result of a “scarlet letter.” Because the more she falls in love, the more his ideas become her own. And the country must soon start to fear Hitler’s influence crossing the Channel.

So too must the Mitfords as the fascist allure captivates one of the teens (with Diana’s help) while another becomes infatuated with a cousin-by-marriage’s (also a relation of Winston Churchill who is an infrequent attendee of the same circles on-screen) commitment to communism. Politics are therefore tearing this sisterhood apart just as it threatens to tear Europe apart. Diana and Unity on one side. Nancy and Jessica on the other. The others desperately trying to play peacekeeper since all that chaos is happening in Germany and thus “none of our concern.” Except, of course, that it is very much their concern. The world will soon discover it should have been humanity’s greatest concern.

It’s why certain events possess a chilling effect in their parallels to current events. Because it’s one thing for a character to praise how welcoming Germans are right before the camera finds a “Juden Verboten” sign hanging behind her. It’s another to witness a dinner scene with family members attempting to discredit the only person speaking truth because her facts were “refuted” or “unsubstantiated” in the press. I saw my own family in them since my Fox News-pilled parents also laugh off atrocities that “aren’t happening” because their propagandized media source refuses to report them. See the aftermath of the Battle of Cable Street recalling last week’s militarized occupation of Los Angeles under fabricated pretense.

These similarities are surely why the publicity outreach hit me (I’ve never received a screener pitch for a BritBox production before) and why the messaging has preemptively called it “major” and a “summer hit.” It’s the sort of mirror people need to recognize how easy it is to look the other way when horrors are occurring miles away or to forgive a loved one’s hate to alleviate awkwardness at holidays. We’ve been through this before. That helpless feeling many have has precedent. You aren’t alone. The scary thing, though, is that you can almost understand how it happened then with slower communication lines. Today proves scarier because the tools that made communication faster have also been weaponized to dismantle the line separating editorial from truth.

I did get worried during the season finale, though, since dialogue and actions began leaning towards the absolute wrong message of accepting fascism as a “difference of opinion.” Thankfully, this is merely a narrative ploy to help drive home the pressing need to remind viewers that certain topics do demand a hardline stance of resistance no matter how much you want to believe the person you knew hasn’t become a monster. It was a relief because I didn’t want it to ruin what was an otherwise engrossing experience. Williams and company hooked me fast and made it so I curbed my impulse to simply go on Wikipedia to see what happened next because I wanted to watch it all unfold on-screen instead.

So, I’ll wait to see if “Outrageous” earns another season before correcting my ignorance about the Mitfords since not knowing anything about them only added to the potency of their intrigue. Because their lives are tabloid fodder on the surface with the inevitable circus ensuring they entertain on an over-the-top melodramatic level regardless of message. The backdrop being what it is, however, also guarantees the stakes remain high enough to see why these actors are so committed to portraying these roles as complex figures at odds between hearts and minds. But, as Muv admits by the end: the world is changing. At a certain point, one must choose a side and know the fight is much bigger than family.

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Bessie Carter (Nancy Mitford), Joanna Vanderham (Diana Mitford), Toby Begbo (Tom Mitford), James Purefoy (David Freeman-Mitford), Anna Chancellor (Sydney Bowles Mitford), Shannon Watson (Unity Mitford), Zoe Brough (Jessica Mitford), Isobel Jesper Jones (Pamela Mitford), and Orla Hill (Deborah Mitford); courtesy of BritBox.