This documentary charts the remarkable true story of Arthur Munby and his maid-servant, Hannah Cullwick, whose secret relationship and eventual marriage broke all the codes of Victorian social class.
Though outwardly a conventional master and servant, privately Munby and Cullwick carried on an obsessive love affair lasting fifty years.
Secret diaries and photographs kept by the couple describe ritualised acts of role-playing and cross dressing, culminating in Munby's fetishised obsession with Hannah's lowly work and the dirt and drudgery it entailed.
Against the backdrop of nineteenth century morality, it is an extraordinary case study of the private realities of Victorian class and desire.
The intense and erotic nature of their hidden affair will surprise even our modern sensibilities.
Watch now on 4oD
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