A series of five programmes on people who have played an important, sometimes decisive, part in the life and work of a famous man or woman.
1: The Tyrant and Her Slave by EDNA HEALEY
The ' perfect ' friendship between the Duke of Wellington and Mrs Harriet Arbuthnot.
Narrator Gavin Campbell The Duke of Wellington was ' big enough to walk alone '. Yet, after Waterloo, when his deafness increased his isolation, and, much against his will, he put on the harness of a statesman, he needed companions he could trust. In 1822, Harriet Arbuthnot was a pretty woman in her late 20s, 24 years younger than the Duke and 26 younger than her husband. She was practical, truthful, intelligent and fiercely loyal. She and her husband were the Duke's chief support in his political years. The three were inseparable. When she died, aged only 41, the two old men were inconsolable. with NIGEL GREAVES and GORDON REID Directed by JOHN THEOCHARIS