The Blonde Bombshell (ITV Drama, Keeley Hawes, Amanda Redman)

Period ITV drama serial The Blonde Bombshell told the glamorous life and times of Diana Dors from her early days in the Rank Charm school to her death from cancer at the age of 52. Keeley Hawes was the young Diana in the first half (up to the aged of 32) with Amanda Redman taking up the reins for the second half.

Despite not looking anything like her in real life Keeley Hawes did an amazing job in The Blonde Bombshell as the younger Dors, she is a few inches taller than she Dors was but with her bleached blonde, blue contacts and putting on a bit of weight she managed to be very convincing.

Diana Dors was one of the biggest British film stars on the fifties, she started out as Rank starlet and was no stranger to the gossip column. First husband Dennis Hamilton led her a merry dance and in 1955 even led her to the dock on a charge of housebreaking (it was all a misunderstanding but didn’t look good) but it was third husband Alan Lake who was the true love of her life. He was a fellow actor (often seen in tough man roles in 1970’s TV shows like Softly Softly: Task Force and The Sweeney) who was troubled himself. Jailed in the early seventies for assault he never got over Diana’s death and killed himself just five months later.

Cast: KEELEY HAWES as Young Diana; AMANDA REDMAN as Older Diana; RUPERT GRAVES as Dennis Hamilton; SHEILA GISH as Mrs Fluck; BENJAMIN WHITROW as Mr Fluck; LARRY LAMB as Will Humphreys; JOSEPHINE BUTLER as Jill Hartland; GARY WBSTER as Dickie Dawson; BARNABY KAY as Alan Lake; JANE LOWE as Millicent Lake; EAMON BOLAND as Cyril Lake

Writer: Ted Whitehead / Music: Colin Towns / Design: Roger Cann / Costume: Susannah Buxton / Executive Producers: Laurie Mackie, Jo Wright / Producer: Trevor Hopkins / Director: Robert Bierman

UK / ITV – London Weekend Television – English Channel / 2×120 minute episodes / Broadcast Monday 26 – Tuesday 27 April 1999

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