‘Outrageous’ – Review

Scandal, seduction, and a thunderclap of history collide in the BBC’s Outrageous, a truly decadent dive into the lives of the infamous Mitford Sisters: aristocrats, renegades, revolutionaries, fascists, communists, and everything in between. This is not your average period drama. Instead, it’s a full-blown, high-stakes social and political melodrama, soaked in champagne, scandal sheets, and the shuddering march of fascism and revolution. Sumptuous, dangerous, and impossible to look away from, Outrageous might just be the most intoxicating series of 2025.

Based on the true story of the Mitford sisters, six women who refused to play by the rules and whose often-scandalous lives made headlines around the world. Set in the 1930s, this is a tale of betrayal, scandal, heartache, and even imprisonment.

Set between 1931 and 1936, as the smoke of one war has cleared and the storm clouds of another begin to gather, Outrageous introduces us to the grand, eccentric, and deliciously chaotic Mitford family. At the centre of it all are six wildly different sisters — Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah — who each take their own defiant, outrageous path into the maelstrom of 20th-century politics and infamy. Whether falling into the arms of Nazis or revolutionaries, dodging debutante balls or lighting Molotov cocktails, the Mitford sisters don’t just flirt with danger; they marry it.

Front and centre is the dazzling Bessie Carter as Nancy Mitford, novelist, wit, and our arch, sharp-tongued narrator into the world of elite dysfunction and ideological obsession. Nancy is the perfect lens: clever, acerbic, and just distant enough to chronicle the family’s descent from tea parties to treachery. Carter’s clipped vowels and withering glances are pitch-perfect, capturing a woman who sees everything, judges everything, and yet is helpless to stop the madness unfurling in her own drawing room. She’s a Mitford, after all — and chaos is the family business.

But if Nancy is the observer, the hurricane at the heart of the storm is Joanna Vanderham as the stunning, venomously glamorous Diana Mitford — the sister who famously traded aristocratic privilege for fascist flame Oswald Mosley and who would became known as ‘the most hated women in Britain’. Vanderham plays Diana like a blonde cobra, coiled and deadly. Her performance drips with erotic danger as she slithers her way from the glittering balls of Mayfair into the arms of fascism. It’s a chilling performance. Seductive, commanding, and shockingly relevant. You’ll love her. You’ll hate her. You won’t forget her.

Then there’s Unity Valkyrie Mitford, yes, that’s really her name, also known as “Bobo” played with frightening intensity by Shannon Watson, who delivers the series’ most unnerving performance. Doe-eyed, devout, and borderline deranged, Unity becomes obsessed with Adolf Hitler, and her story, largely ignored or downplayed in mainstream history, gets a full, horrific spotlight here. Watson’s portrayal is wild, manic, and tragically believable. Her descent into fanatical zealotry is a disturbing counterpoint to the idealistic path of her sister Jessica, or “Decca,” played by Zoe Brough, who throws herself into communism and runs off to fight in the Spanish Civil War with her handsome leftist lover. The ideological split between the two is gut-wrenching and real, especially given that they once shared a nursery.

And therein lies the most outrageous twist of all: this is true. The Mitford sisters weren’t fictional characters—they were real people, driven by real obsessions, who found themselves in bed with the very ideologies that would tear Europe apart. That raw historical authenticity gives Outrageous a biting edge, and each episode piles on the tension as ideology, ego, and family ties clash in ever more destructive ways.

Also holding her own is Isobel Jesper Jones as Pamela or “Woman” as she was known by her sisters, the “quiet” sister—though even she earns her share of headlines, as a closeted lesbian in an era where that meant constant secrecy and risk. And then there’s the youngest, Deborah or “Debo” (played sweetly by Orla Hill), whose youthful innocence gets tested by a whirlwind romance with a much older man. Every sister has her own arc, her own moment, and her own scandal, and showrunner Sarah Williams smartly gives them all room to breathe, clash, and combust.

Thematically, Outrageous explores the end of the old world—a dying gasp of the Gilded Age as modernity, extremism, and war grind its fine manners and crumbling estates into dust. That melancholy, of privilege giving way to chaos, hangs heavy over the series. The Mitfords may wear satin gloves and drop bon mots like Oscar Wilde, but they are also caught in history’s riptide, and by the end, not everyone will make it out unscathed.

Visually, Outrageous is a feast. It leans into the opulence of its setting, from the candlelit halls of English country estates to the fevered rallies of interwar Europe. The costuming is out of this world—couture meets political theatre—and the hair, makeup, and art direction revel in the contradictions of high society gone rogue. Think Downton Abbey by way of Succession and The Crown with a sprinkling of Mean Girls, but nastier, more rebellious, and far more daring.

But what elevates Outrageous above other period dramas is its brashness. It’s unapologetically bold in how it handles politics, ideology, and taboo. It doesn’t sugar-coat its characters. These are not paragons of virtue. These are real people, in all their flawed, maddening complexity. Some, like Unity and Diana, make terrifying choices. Others, like Jessica, sacrifice everything for a cause they believe in. But all of them matter, and by the end, you’ll be left breathless at the sheer scope of what this one family managed to represent in the chaos of the 1930s.

And just when you think it can’t get wilder, in walk historical heavyweights: Winston Churchill makes appearances, as does, you guessed it, Adolf Hitler himself. There’s a surreal horror in watching these girls flit around tea tables, only to suddenly be in the presence of history’s monsters. And yet it all happened. That’s the most outrageous thing of all.

For fans of historical drama, political thrillers, or just juicy, scandal-soaked storytelling, Outrageous is unmissable. It’s a sexy, smart, savage exploration of history’s forgotten women—not the ones in the textbooks, but the ones who left scorch marks on the pages anyway. Each episode is a champagne-soaked Molotov cocktail, thrown at polite society with impeccable aim.

The BBC has delivered a masterpiece here, and Outrageous is sure to dominate award season conversations. Bold, brash, and unapologetically extra, this is period drama with claws; and they are painted blood red.

Outrageous is currently streaming on Neon.

Image: SKY TV