From the BBC and Masterpiece, Janet McTeer stars as Vita Sackville-West in the remarkable true story of the Edwardian writer.
British aristocrat and writer Vita Sackville-West and diplomat Harold Nicolson married in 1913, and their love endured and deepened over the course of their 50 years together. Each, however, was knowingly and repeatedly unfaithful to the other, Vita most famously with fellow writer Virginia Woolf. But only one affair threatened their union: Vita’s tempestuous liaison with her childhood friend Violet Keppel. This BBC drama is the story of that affair based on the extraordinary literary biography by Nigel Nicolson, Vita and Harold’s son.
In 1918, Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West are a golden couple. He is destined for a high rank in the diplomatic corps; she is the daughter of Lord and Lady Sackville, a successful novelist and creative gardener in her own right. They are also both part of the famous Bloomsbury Group. However, five years in, their marriage is about to reach crisis point. Harold confesses to having affairs with men, but swears his only true passion is Vita. She accepts this, but when her childhood friend Violet Keppel arrives, declaring her love for Vita, the two women find themselves in an intense sexual relationship. As their affair becomes more passionate and all-consuming, the tension rises in Vita and Harold’s marriage. While he is torn between his love for Vita and his hatred for her lover, she is seriously considering jettisoning her social and material status and eloping with Violet to live together in Paris.
Portrait of a Marriage opens with deceptive calm– a husband and wife working in a garden look up at planes flying overhead. But the planes are off to bomb Germany and moments later a phone call thrusts the wife–poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West (Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds)–into a bittersweet reverie from the previous war. Five years into her marriage with Harold Nicolson (David Haig, Two Weeks Notice), Harold confesses his affairs with men–but swears his only true passion is Vita. She accepts this, but when her childhood friend Violet Keppel (Cathryn Harrison, Clarissa) arrives, the two women begin an affair. Soon Vita and Violet find themselves deeply enmeshed, traveling through the gay demimonde of Paris with Vita in men’s clothes. The affair becomes all-consuming and starts tearing at Vita and Harold’s marriage and the lives of their two children. Portrait of a Marriage practically bursts with revealing psychological details and startlingly steamy sex scenes–as Vita and Violet’s relationship grows more carnal, so does the miniseries. But there’s nothing casual or exploitive about it; the sex deepens the hold the women have on each other’s hearts and leads to emotional pyrotechnics. The tension constantly thickens, made all the more complex because Vita and Harold genuinely love each other, regardless of their sexual longings. The vivid and meticulous recreation of the period frames the superb performances by McTeer, Harrison, and Haig. This four-episode miniseries from 1990, based on the biography by Vita and Harold’s son Nigel, is yet another example of the BBC’s mastery of literary adaptations. –Bret Fetzer
Set in the Edwardian, First World War, Interwar eras.
Starring Janet McTeer, David Haig, Cathryn Harrison, Diana Fairfax, Peter Birch.
Not rated but not suitable for young children.