Just finished watching this drama on iplayer. A true story in which the actress plays her own grandmother. Fascinating story about the author Alexander Wilson who upon his death in 1962 it was discovered he had four wives and five sons none of whom had previously known the existence of one another.
He was able to sustain his subterfuge as his cover was that he worked for MI6 during WW2 which was partly true but not necessarily to the extent he claimed. No one knows as as of 2018 the security services are still refusing to release details of his years of service. This is very hard on his family as they still have a lot of answered questions about what areas of his life were true and what was fiction.
He even served time in prison but even that he claimed to be part of his undercover work to infiltrate Oswald Moseley's blackshirts. No one knows if this is true but there are certain indications that suggest that he was telling the truth. For instance there is no record of any criminal convictions which led to his imprisonment.
What made his wife suspect he might not have been telling the truth about the real reason for his prison sentence was that he didn't seem to be getting paid for his undercover work and she was living in virtual poverty. But what she didn't realise at the time was that any payments he was receiving was being split four ways between his four wives and five children.
Anyway I thought I'd recommend it as I nearly didn't bother to watch it buy did on a whim. The fact that it is a true story makes it that more interesting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0btk3w3
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-46456654
He was able to sustain his subterfuge as his cover was that he worked for MI6 during WW2 which was partly true but not necessarily to the extent he claimed. No one knows as as of 2018 the security services are still refusing to release details of his years of service. This is very hard on his family as they still have a lot of answered questions about what areas of his life were true and what was fiction.
He even served time in prison but even that he claimed to be part of his undercover work to infiltrate Oswald Moseley's blackshirts. No one knows if this is true but there are certain indications that suggest that he was telling the truth. For instance there is no record of any criminal convictions which led to his imprisonment.
What made his wife suspect he might not have been telling the truth about the real reason for his prison sentence was that he didn't seem to be getting paid for his undercover work and she was living in virtual poverty. But what she didn't realise at the time was that any payments he was receiving was being split four ways between his four wives and five children.
Anyway I thought I'd recommend it as I nearly didn't bother to watch it buy did on a whim. The fact that it is a true story makes it that more interesting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0btk3w3
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-46456654
