Award-winning actress Ruth Wilson leads an all-British cast in Mrs Wilson, a new original three-part drama for BBC One based on the life of her own grandmother.
It’s 1963, and Alison Wilson (Ruth Wilson) returns home to find husband Alexander (Iain Glen) dead. Blinded by grief, Alison is bewildered when a woman unexpectedly arrives at the door, claiming to be Alec’s ‘real wife’ Gladys (Elizabeth Rider).
Alison embarks on a mission to discover who her husband really was. But, by dissecting their wartime romance whilst working for the secret service, and learning about his mysterious past in India, it soon becomes clear to Alison that Alec died holding his secrets close to his chest.
Alison is left craving the truth as she makes discoveries that threaten to tear her carefully crafted world apart.
Ruth Wilson says: “I would tell various people the story, and they all said to me, you’ve got to get this made. My family all said to me, you’ve got to get this made. I didn’t necessarily want to get it made, but it was an amazing story, and the more I told it, the more it became fascinating, and the more things we kept finding out about my grandfather.”
Wilson began approaching producers to see if the extraordinary story could indeed find its way to a wider audience than just family and close friends. Her grandmother, Alison Wilson, had written at great length about her experiences during the Second World War, her relationship with Alec, his death and her ultimate embrace of religion.
Wilson explains the genesis: “I met (Exec Producer) Neil Blair, who said to me we could get the books published, but we could also make a drama out of this. So, we started discussing and collaborating with Snowed-In and Ruth Kenley-Letts (Executive Producer) who runs the production company with Neil.”