Yahoo News The Trial of Christine Keeler producer explains how the show debunks iconic chair photo
The Trial of Christine Keeler producer Rebecca Ferguson (not that one) has revealed how the BBC One series debunks an iconic moment in Keeler's career.
Starring Kingsman actress Sophie Cookson as the famous English model, this six-part drama dives into the events of one of the 20th century's most intriguing scandals: The Profumo Affair.
The series follows 19-year-old Christine Keeler, who found herself at the centre of the storm as the powerful, male-dominated establishment sought to silence and exploit her. However, viewers will see the series go behind the headlines of the 1960s to tell the story of a woman who refused to play by their rules.
And one of the moments of Keeler's career that the series explores is her infamous chair photo, which sees her sat 'nude' astride a chair in an iconic image.
Speaking about how the drama series reframes Keeler's story, producer Ferguson told Digital Spy: "The pool...is the opening image, the opening frame of the drama. And you see that. You see Christine's version of what happened at the pool, which is what is in her autobiography.
"And then the chair moment is really one of my favourite moments in the whole series, because she kept her underwear on, and obviously it's such a sexualised — she looks naked, and at the time, that was really, really naughty, and it was just not the done thing. It was such a sexualised image.
"But she had her own moral code," Ferguson continued. "The photographer was like, 'Take your underwear off'. She was like, 'I'm not going to. I'll just hoik it up'.
"And then they used the chair — we get behind that iconic image and see the character, and see the woman, and see what she was willing to do, and what she wasn't willing to do.
"And actually, the shot that is the shot, that is the iconic one, is a really defiant moment, because she's kind of annoyed with [photographer] Lewis Morley at that point. He's trying to cajole her to get her to take her underwear off, and she's like, 'No'.
"And that's when she looks into the camera, and that's when she looks down the lens, and you get that shot. You see her. You see her power at that point. So we dramatise that."
Alongside Sophie Cookson, the series also stars James Norton, Ellie Bamber, Ben Miles, Emilia Fox, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Anthony Welsh.
The Trial of Christine Keeler airs tonight (December 29) at 9pm on BBC One and continues on Monday (December 30). You can pre-order the DVD of the series now.
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