In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head.
DIRECTED BYPhilippa Lowthorpe
PRODUCED BYAndy Harries, Rebecca Frayn, Cameron McCracken, Jenny Borgars, Rose Garnett, Andrea Scarso, Natascha Wharton, Suzanne Mackie, Sarah Jane Wheale
STORY BYRebecca Frayn
SCREENPLAY BYRebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe
CASTKeira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Keeley Hawes, Phyllis Logan, with Lesley Manville, with Rhys Ifans and Greg Kinnear