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 UK
|BBC4 | Monday 16 October 2006 @ 9.00pm
Before Jamie
Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Fanny Cradock turned the UK into a nation of
wannabe domestic goddesses, the Victorians had their own icon in the
shape of Isabella Beeton. However, dead of childbed fever at the age of
28, the story of Isabella Beeton is as tragic as it is inspiring.
Anna Madeley
(Isabella Beeton) and JJ Feild (Samuel Beeton) star in Sarah William's
screenplay, based on Kathryn Hughes' biography of Mrs Beeton.
Eldest daughter of
18 children, Isabella's childhood is spent looking after her siblings
and step-brothers and sisters. She embarks on a passionate and fiery
courtship with publisher Samuel Beeton and, despite her parent's
disapproval, Isabella marries Sam and sets up home in the suburbs.
However, she soon becomes bored playing the model middle-class housewife
and, after six months, joins Sam at work in London.
Then Isabella has
her big idea: a book to help middle-class women like herself in the new,
more open and prosperous society, learn how to manage their kitchens,
husbands, homes and staff. Of course, Bella didn't have a clue how to
cook, but recipes could be copied from other sources...
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