TBT: Prince Regent (1979), Part 1

BBC’s miniseries Prince Regent (1979) has clearly fallen off the radar, so much so that it’s not even available for streaming. Nonetheless, it’s a solid, traditional bio-series about an inherently hilarious person — and the tiny bit of the costumes that I was able to see intrigued me! So I went to my favorite Russian site for slightly older films and TV series and yep, it’s on there! I’m not going to link to them because I can’t guarantee it’s 100% safe (but I’ve never run into problems), AND I don’t want them to be taken down. But if you’re interested, just do a Google video search for “Prince Regent 1979” and that’ll be the only site to have actual full episodes.

Prince Regent begins in 1784, as Prinny — George, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of Great Britain and future King George IV — meets his One True Love, Maria Fitzherbert. Well, as much as Prinny can HAVE One True Love? It stars Peter Egan (who played the Earl of Southampton in Elizabeth R; Oscar Wilde in Lillie; Hugh ‘Shrimpie’ MacClare, Marquess of Flintshire on Downton Abbey; and also acted in Chariots of Fire and The Spanish Princess) as George, Susannah York (Tom Jones, A Man for All Seasons, Jane Eyre, Yellowbeard) as Fitzherbert, Nigel Davenport (Mary Queen of Scots, A Man for All Seasons, Chariots of Fire, David Copperfield) as father King George III, and Frances White (Mary Queen of Scots, I Claudius) as Queen Charlotte. Plus, Caroline Blakiston (AUNT AGATHA on Poldark) as mistress Lady Jersey, and Patsy Kensit and Cherie Lunghi in bit parts as his very younger sisters!

Overall, yeah, the series is your standard stuffy, traditional, low-budget production … but Prinny is SO ridiculous, from when he was a young ne’er-do-well who fancied himself an arTIST but had very little talent or intellect to when he was an old, overweight, pompous git. And, it’s the BBC doing a costume era I LOVE (late 18th century), and I’ll say, the costumes ARE great.

Those costumes were designed by Raymond Hughes (1971’s Wives and Daughters, The Pallisers) and thanks to the joy of eBay, I managed to find a one-page article from Radio Times that talks about his work. Hughes told them how,

“At the Museum of London Hughes was able to handle the original clothes and coronation gowns belonging to the prince — ‘an extraordinary sensation,’ he recalls. ‘His corset stretched the length of a table and I saw his coronation gout shoe — a piece of gold foil on a plain sole’ … The Prince Regent adored his wardrobe. He designed a lot of it himself. After his death, his executor, the Duke of Wellington, discovered literally scores of unworn outfits and pairs of shoes. They made clothes differently in those days, there were often no seams in a dress. The shape is achieved by the way in which it is cut.”

The same article also interviews the lead makeup artist, Toni Chapman, who also led the wigs and hair. Chapman said, “Above all, we must get across the atmosphere of the time. We don’t necessarily copy everything from a portrait, as it may not work for that particular actor. But we do use the most obvious features” — for example, as the article continues, “George III’s slightly buck teeth, or the deep furrow down the side of the Prince Regent’s face.”

Regarding the wigs — and this is a wig era, the Radio Times reported,

“Yak hair is the rather improbable material used, and each piece of hair is painstakingly ‘threaded’ through a piece of net. The wigs and hair-pieces for Prince Regent are extremely elaborate … During the first episode, Nigel Davenport, who plays King George III, has to pull off his wig. First, his own hair was flattened down, then a ‘bald piece’ was put on, then a further piece was put on over that and cropped to achieve the furry, balding effect; and finally, the wig proper was put on” (Prince Charming, Radio Times, Sept. 1-7, 1979).

There were a LOT of costumes I liked, so in this post, I’m going to talk about the first two episodes; I’ll do later post(s) about episodes 3-4 and 5-6 (well, maybe; the Regency stuff may bore me in which case I’ll compress things). Here’s my stream-of-consciousness thoughts:

Stay tuned for more late-18th-century fabulosity — in sadly blurry screencaps — from Prince Regent!