Mrs Wilson

It annoys me that she's lying to her sons - she knows what it's like to be lied to, and now she's doing the same to them. They've already caught her out about the house ownership. However, this does happen - I know of a case where two adult sons have never been told about their mother's real parentage and who their actual grandparents were, although others in the wider family (me, for instance) do know the truth.

Re the interior decor: it seems OK to me. In the 50s, most of our walls were porridge coloured or with pale patterned wallpaper, but the (rarely-used) sitting room had one wall in a dark green wallpaper with a pattern of gold and white dots on it. It was expensive paper so my parents bought half a roll, just enough to do the alcoves either side of the chimney breast. Then about 1960 they papered the wall at the side of the staircase in a bold terra-cotta paper with a leaf pattern on it. Oh, and in the kitchen, one wall had a weird dark grey paper with pictures of kitchen utensils all over it. We were not posh, this was just a three-bed red brick semi built after the war. I do wish I had colour photos of all this, but of course it wasn't possible then.

In the 40s we had a wallpaper with a beige/ brown pattern on it - when my dad redecorated he did it with wide borders and a pretty dado strip covering the join - I can remember how beautifully light the room became.
Alison was working when she met Alec - during the war many people lived in a couple of rooms - as they did into the 60s.
In the first episode it showed her working and going home for lunch which was when Alec died. When she spoke to Dorothy in the second episode Dorothy told her that she had no money from Alec at all. She probably had some compassionate leave from her job after she was widowed and she likely still had an income from royalties.

As a child of the 50's I was never told the story of my half sisters birth.
She was brought up by my MGP and called my nan 'mum'.
It was never talked about in front of my brother and I.
I didn't discover the facts until mum died.

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!

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.

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

Merlot

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.

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.

We called it kingfisher blue

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

“it didn’t penetrate as far as Stockport”

janeainsworth. - were you in Stockport then?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.