Aristocrats TV Series (1999)
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Paul Theroff
Nov 25, 2025, 9:50:00 PM (2 days ago) Nov 25
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I've been re-reading the Correspondence of Emily, Duchess of Leinster, and her family, and so I decided to watch "Aristocrats", the 1999 (I think) series about the lives of the Lennox sisters. I binged all six episodes today.
Unlike some historical dramas, this one aged well, and is still quite interesting. More important, it's really pretty accurate as to what happened and when it happened. I often cannot stand to watch even the best such shows, because they usually have people marrying people they didn't marry, and doing doing things they didn't do, at times when they didn't occur, etc. (For example, most of the recent Tudor and Plantagenet shows, except for Wolf Hall, and shows like "The Great", about Catherine II of Russia.) I usually have to give up on these show because the inaccuracies drive me crazy. :)
At any rate, as I said "Aristocrats" is pretty accurate. Probably the biggest anachronism was making Stephen and Charles James Fox already adults with gambling problems during the episode covering 1760-1, when they were actually 14 or 15, and they were played by actors in at least their 30s who looked at least 40! This was a totally unnecessary anachronism. But besides that, it was all pretty accurate.
Anyway, I just wanted to recommend it to anyone looking for something interesting to watch. Here in the USA it is streaming on Amazon.
Unlike some historical dramas, this one aged well, and is still quite interesting. More important, it's really pretty accurate as to what happened and when it happened. I often cannot stand to watch even the best such shows, because they usually have people marrying people they didn't marry, and doing doing things they didn't do, at times when they didn't occur, etc. (For example, most of the recent Tudor and Plantagenet shows, except for Wolf Hall, and shows like "The Great", about Catherine II of Russia.) I usually have to give up on these show because the inaccuracies drive me crazy. :)
At any rate, as I said "Aristocrats" is pretty accurate. Probably the biggest anachronism was making Stephen and Charles James Fox already adults with gambling problems during the episode covering 1760-1, when they were actually 14 or 15, and they were played by actors in at least their 30s who looked at least 40! This was a totally unnecessary anachronism. But besides that, it was all pretty accurate.
Anyway, I just wanted to recommend it to anyone looking for something interesting to watch. Here in the USA it is streaming on Amazon.
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