Mrs Wilson

Crumbs! His Wikipedia entry is very revealing!!

All Wilson's books were written by 1940.

How painful sparklefizz. Poor woman and poor little boy.

Jane10 Yes, I think you're right re the boys ... I think there is something else to be revealed about them.

As far as the handler suggesting Alison should protect the boys, the priest gave the same advice. Finding out that they were illegitimate in those days would have been shocking, plus it would have reflected badly on Alison herself as an unmarried mother.

I think it was very common during and after the war. I know of 2 men with similar stories. One whose mother would never reveal his father's name and he didn't know why. Eventually it turned out that she didn't know it herself as he had been conceived in a one-night stand during an air raid in London when she was just a teenager.

The second chap was brought up by his mother until the war ended by which time he was 3. He was the result of an affair his mum had had while his dad was away. If his dad had been killed, she would have kept the toddler, but his dad came home and so she gave him away for adoption. He was in his 50s and had never got over it. In fact, both these men were carrying the emotional traumas.

People had secrets because of stigma.

I agree with grumppa about the beard. We also commented on it. I was always told that the only service allowing a beard which had to be a full one and not a little goatee thing was the Royal Navy.

My father was in the RAF and had to get special permission to grow a beard while he was recovering from a bad bout of chickenpox. I think it was allowed for about six weeks then it had to come off.

A serving officer wearing a beard would have stuck out like a sore thumb in WW2 so maybe not a good idea for a spy?

Maybe the beard was to indicate/emphasise that he was a spy ie not an ordinary officer?
It seems to me that there was much more weight given to saving face back then. Finding out that they were illegitimate would have been shattering in those days. Family secrets were certainly kept.
From what the handler said about protecting the boys maybe the secret service was paying the university costs etc?
The poor woman though. It must have felt that the ground had opened up under her feet while struggling with bereavement. An awful story. I wonder how common it really was after the last war.

grumppa Prince Harry apparently had to get special permission from the Queen to keep his beard for his wedding.

Anja This is supposed to be a true story about the actress Ruth Wilson's grandmother so I imagine she wouldn't want it to be changed, differently interpreted or made "unbelievable" as she (Ruth Wilson) has commissioned it.

On the matter of authenticity, I am pretty sure that during and after WW2 the only soldiers allowed beards were sergeants in the Pioneer Corps. And that was about the only thing Mr. Wilson didn't pretend to be.

I remember shaving mine off when I was playing an infantry sergeant in a school staff production of See How They Run. There were even comments recently about Prince Harry wearing an army uniform and sporting a beard at his wedding.

Bluebelle you ask what I didn’t like. I don’t like books or plays where the women act in a way that is plain stupid. I didn’t find it believable that a ‘loving’ mother would treat her sons that way. She’s not overcome by grief more by anger a being deceived yet she’s remote with her sons, even violent physically and verbally and lies to them. Neither are little boys to be ‘protected’ from the truth, whatever that is.

I don’t find this interpretation believable and I’m surprised it was written by a woman.

I went to Alexandra Park School in Edgeley & some of the children in my class lived in Reddish & came to school on the bus Reddish seemed like a foreign country it was so far away

Aye, by ‘eck, lass I was! Lived in Reddish; went to Stockport High School.

Lisagran yes, in Cheadle Heath till I was 14 & then we moved to Cheadle Hulme ?
Are you a Stockport girl too?

In the 60s we had a kitchen that had different colour cupboard doors - red, yellow, blue etc. It looked a bit wacky!

I agree Kitty it changed to colour with The Wizard of Oz ?

Definitely 2nd episode weaker than the first which had me gripped. Hope the finale is better.

In the 60s parts the turquoise blue was pretty spot on I thought. Our kitchen had that colour formica worktops along with yellow cupboards.

“it didn’t penetrate as far as Stockport”

janeainsworth. - were you in Stockport then?

I thought the world was in black and white in those days.

We called it kingfisher blue

I must be fairly unobservant - I never really noticed all the teal! ???
I also think some of the queries will have answers by the end of the series.

I agree merlot - that was exactly what I thought when Mrs W told Michael she had been visiting his mother and he said that he had read all his Dad's novels - but I got the idea that some were written after he had "died." Puzzling.

And it sort of looked as thought the priest knew something about Alec's double life - maybe from confession? And it is indeed puzzling that MrsW was prepared to lose her sons rather than tell them the truth - or as much of it as she could within the official secrets. They already knew he had been lying to them.

I agree that the period touches are excellent - I smiled at "your favourite - fish paste sandwiches."

It is excellently acted.

Merlot

The set designers probably had a few tins of teal left over from Howard's End.

I think that was fairly common nina.
A close friend of my parents grew up believing someone was his aunt, and many years later found out she was his half-sister.

This series has fallen for the idea of over-styling. As others have pointed out, the use of blue is relentless and distracting. Also over use of peach/coral accents. It has been done in other series too, and I always end up with a lasting memory of the stilted use of colour rather than the story plot and outcome!

I'm another who found the second episode not as engaging as the first. Fingers crossed for number 3!