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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 12 april 2017
Lady Sybil no more: ‘Downton’ star shifts to ‘Harlots’

LYNN ELBER who had been left in a
AP Television Writer “bad way” by her past life
LOS ANGELES (AP) — If and who Buffini’s mother
there’s any doubt that Jes- helped care for.
sica Brown Findlay has left “You could see the way
Lady Sybil of “Downton Ab- her job had played out in
bey” far behind, consider her life. You could see the
a recent interview with her damage, not just on her
by phone from London. but on her children’s chil-
Findlay was discussing her dren,” she said.
role as Charlotte, an 18th- “Harlots,” with its lavishly
century prostitute in Hulu’s costumed and painted
drama series “Harlots,” prostitutes, looks at both
while commuting by bus to the hard-earned freedom
perform that night as Oph- and the anguish such a life
elia in “Hamlet.” accorded.
If others remain fixated on But given the number of
the popular character she people now working in
last played five years ago the sex industry, voluntarily
in “Downton” — “I think the or not, why not tackle the
British press think I might be modern reality?
that person” — she’s fo- Buffini has a ready answer.
cused firmly on the work at “History gives you a fasci-
hand. In this image released by Hulu, Jessica Brown-Findlay portrays Charlotte Wells, an 18th-century nating prism through which
“Harlots” is a bold show- prostitute in Hulu’s drama series “Harlots.” to look at the contem-
case for Findlay, whose Associated Press porary world and to look
character is a madam’s at contemporary gender
daughter who went into ity for women who lacked received an Olivier Award prostitutes. politics. History removes
the family business, and connections or a man, nomination for best com- “It struck me they were you from the dead weight
the rest of its female-dom- whether husband, father or edy play in 2003, dealt with defined by what they did of documentary, if you like,
inated cast. But women otherwise, as their protec- it as well. and not by who they are. as a dramatist,” she said.
also are the power behind tor, said Moira Buffini, who The inspiration for that was Because I knew who they “It frees you from that and
the screen as writers, pro- created and produced more direct. Early in her ca- were, it struck me as odd,” it gives you a language
ducers and in other key the series with Alison New- reer, she taught drama to she said. and gives you a bright,
positions — a change that man. female prison inmates and She’d already seen the toll focused color palette in
Brown found richly reward- A woman without such a discovered how many had it could exact on one in- which to explore quite spe-
ing. safety net might end up in supported themselves as dividual, an older woman cific things.”q
“Normally, when I’m read- the sex industry, said Buffini,
ing (a script), I’m like, ‘That who says the tally is star-
character’s brilliant’ — and tlingly large when all con-
it’s a guy,” she said with a nected to it are included.
laugh. But in “Harlots,” the “One in five women were
women are fully formed working as sex workers or in
and as intriguing as any associated businesses, like
man. cleaners or cooks in the
“It’s really exciting to allow house,” she said.
female characters to be “There were three sex
frustrating and imperfect shops in Covent Garden;
and infuriating and funny,” condom makers; back
Findlay said. Her co-stars in- street abortionists, and the
clude Samantha Morton as child-minders who looked
her mother, Margaret, and after the prostitute’s chil-
Lesley Manville as Lydia, a dren while they worked.”
rival madam with a vicious London’s Covent Garden,
streak. now a popular shopping
The history-based story was and tourist area, was the
a revelation to Findlay. city’s version of a red-light
“I was aware it was a time district in the 1700s. It even
when London was explod- boasted a guidebook to
ing economically, doing individual prostitutes, “Har-
incredibly well, and with ris’s List of Covent Garden
that came lavish lifestyles,” Ladies.”
she said. For the prostitutes Newman came across a
and madams and catered copy, which opened a
to men with disposable in- window for the creative
come, the reward was the partners on the “amazing
ability to “own property, outlaw society of 18th-cen-
have rights over their own tury harlotry” and led to
bodies, make a living and “Harlots,” Buffini said.
survive.” But it wasn’t Buffini’s first
The idea of survival by any work on the general sub-
means was the harsh real- ject. “Loveplay,” which