Scandalously stylish, Crown star Claire in racy new role

HER high society divorce case caused a sensation in the 1960s with its claims of drug-taking, violence and forgery – and a memorably explicit polaroid.

Now, 57 years on, the story of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll and her adventurous sex life is being brought to the screen.

A three-part BBC drama stars Claire Foy – who played the Queen in the first two series of The Crown – as the duchess, who died in 1993, and Paul Bettany, 50, as her husband Ian Campbell, the 11th Duke of Argyll.

Images from the set of A Very British Scandal show the actress, 37, with the society beauty’s trademark curled bob and stylish fashion sense.

In one picture she wears a fitted silver gown with plunging sweetheart neckline and long gloves while chatting with Julia Davis, who plays Maureen, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, apparently eyeing up some future conquests.

Another sees the duke and duchess enjoying drinks in a glamorous nightclub.

Margaret’s divorce amid accusations of theft, secret recordings and bribery dominated the front pages.

The polaroid picture showed Margaret – wearing nothing but a string of pearls – involved in a sexual act with a man in her Mayfair apartment.

Other photos showing a man engaged in a sex act also featured in the divorce.

In all the infamous shots, the man’s head had been conveniently cut off at the neck and for years his identity was preserved. However, in 2000 a TV documentary identified the ‘headless man’ – or rather headless men, because it named two lovers.

The man in the shot with a naked Margaret was said to be Cabinet minister and Winston Churchill’s son-in-law, Duncan Sandys. The other man was identified as Hollywood star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Other men have also been suggested.

The BBC series has been written by Sarah Phelps, who has previously adapted Agatha Christie novels including The Pale Horse and And Then There Were None. The Crown’s Richard Goulding and The Durrells’ Miles Jupp also star.

It has been made by the team behind the BBC’s A Very English Scandal in 2018, which starred Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as politician Jeremy Thorpe and his lover Norman Scott.

Piers Wenger, director of BBC Drama, said: ‘Argyll v Argyll was one of the defining scandals of the 1960s. In the face of vilification in the press, Margaret fought valiantly but often in vain to control the narrative around her.’