Description

South Kensington, London, 1953. Mrs Harriet Wallis is found guilty of the murder of her husband, Cecil. It is the year of the Coronation and, as a new Queen ascends the throne, Mrs Wallis will become the second-last woman in England to be hanged. One year earlier, and Harriet's life is thrown into turmoil by the reappearance of a man she did not expect to ever see again. A new nanny, Jean Corbett, arrives at the Wallis household - a young woman still traumatised by the devastating loss of her entire family during the War. And two policemen come to the house investigating a theft at Mr Wallis's shipping firm. Thus, a chain of events is set in place, and when Mr Wallis makes the momentous decision to purchase a television set on which to watch the Coronation, his and Harriet's fates are sealed. Set in a post-war period when a well-to-do British family's existence - both outside and inside the home - is ruled by a strict set of conventions, The Second-Last Woman in England explores the depth of emotions that are always there in every family but rarely surface. And what happens when they do.