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It’s the costume drama plot with the startlingly up-to-date twist: the fifth marquess of Anglesey, a scandalously extravagant, cross-dressing peer of the realm, who cavorted around north Wales in the late 19th century, now has his own biopic – and it is a tribute he surely would have relished. The makers of Madfabulous, which has just filmed on location in Anglesey (Ynys Môn), believe their starry version of his extraordinary story is an overdue celebration of the non-conforming aristocrat, born Henry Paget and nicknamed “Toppy”.
Revealing details of the opulent new film for the first time this weekend, the director Celyn Jones said the germ of the project was the moment when he came across a photograph of the flamboyant Paget dressed in one of his elaborate outfits – and then Jones noticed the date: “I looked at the photo again, checked Henry’s story and thought: hang on this is 1890 – and in Anglesey!”
Jones, who grew up on the island off the Caernarfonshire coast, was intrigued. “I realised this was like a David Bowie, or perhaps a Marc Bolan, but well before their time. Henry’s story really is of The Man who Fell to Earth, since there is no sense of where his ideas came from. He influenced so many people, with all the photographs he took of himself in outlandish costumes. He effectively distributed his own “selfies” before such a thing had ever been dreamed of. He remains an influencer now too.”
The style of the so-called “dancing marquess” has recently been cited as a major influence on Harris Reed, the British-American designer and head of the Nina Ricci fashion house. who is known for a “gender fluid” approach to contemporary clothing.
Jones’s new film, with a script written by another Anglesey local, Lisa Baker, is only loosely based on Paget’s life because the truth is hard to establish. Not only did Paget live well outside the established norms of the landed gentry, but his personal papers are believed to have been destroyed by his family after his death. What is clear is that he spent an inordinate amount of money very quickly – much more than his entire inheritance, which would be worth around £11m today.
“There is not much to go on, so we are approximating, because it is difficult to nail down anything about his life,” said Jones, who has cast the acclaimed It’s A Sin actor Callum Scott Howells as Paget, his first lead role in a feature film.
The film recreates the unorthodox festivities that Paget staged on his estate, Plas Newydd, which he renamed Anglesey Castle. He was well known for throwing lavish parties, known as butterfly balls, in which, clad in yards of pale silk, he would dance wildly for guests. The Eton-educated marquess also set up a “Gaiety Theatre” on the grounds and treated neighbouring islanders to spectacular performances.
“I hadn’t known about the butterfly balls, but reading about them I felt a spark of that something I look out for – a moment in history that stands out,” said Jones, who is also an actor and who has previously directed films including The Vanishing and The Almond and the Seahorse with his Mad As Birds film company.
“I think we have something extraordinary here in the performance of Callum,” he added.
The 25-year-old actor is also due to portray Holly Johnson in Relax, a film about Frankie Goes to Hollywood. In Madfabulous, Howells stars alongside Rupert Everett and Bridgerton’s Ruby Stokes, and he is supported by a cast including Paul Rhys, Kevin Eldon and Louise Brealey, the Sherlock actor who recently appeared on screen with Jones in the British musical Chuck Chuck Baby.
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“Paul Rhys is a genius, as all actors know, and he is a wonderful villain. The cast, in fact, is almost like a classic Ealing comedy cast from the 1950s,” said Jones. The director believes that although Paget behaved irresponsibly, his openness to other people somehow combined with his apparent innocence to ensure he was largely forgiven by those around him. He routinely ignored class barriers as well as society’s prevalent dismissive attitude to women.
“He lived to the full. However, he eventually paid the price for it all,” said the director. “The one thing we do know is that Henry ended his life penniless in the south of France.” After being made a bankrupt, owing the equivalent of £70m, Paget died of tuberculosis at the age of 29.
“This film, I hope, is a kind of love story,” said Jones, “But it is more about love in its various guises, from passion, to lust, to platonic love and unrequited love. And it is about love’s casualties.”
