oooh interesting – A Middleground

priscillajeanohare:

Read some descriptions of some of the background characters in Harlots in the press packet and they were really intriguing! A few bits of this I’d read elsewhere in the Radio Times but I hadn’t heard the rest. @gulbaharsultan you might be interested in this:

Nancy is Margaret’s oldest friend. In their youth, they both worked in Lydia Quigley’s house. She’s loyal, darkly funny
and moral. Nancy abhors the bullying ways of brothel keepers like Lydia Quigley. Nancy is a strong presence who rules
the streets unbothered – for she’s a dominatrix who specialises in using the rod with her clients. She rents rooms in
her dingy house to women at the lower end of the market. And although Nancy isn’t the maternal type she cares for
these girls in her way, and has saved many a girl from the dangers of the streets.

Kitty is the daughter of a respectable bookseller. Ruined as a teenager, she has been working in Margaret’s brothel for
years. Kitty is loyal and reliable – an educated girl – she knows the ways of a family business, and is brilliant with
accounts. Far better in fact than Margaret, and this makes her an invaluable member of the Wells household,
although she begins to feel that Margaret doesn’t truly recognise her worth.

Fanny is a much loved member of Margaret’s house, a pretty and guileless girl who – though she doubts herself – is
always popular with the punters. Fanny is a child of the streets, she’s spent time in workhouses, and been in far worse
places than Margaret’s, so she is grateful to be where she is. And Fanny is good at her job, which, though she doesn’t
know it, makes her an asset to the house.

Underneath the grime, Betsey looks like an angel but she’s still tough as old boots. Betsey rents a room from Nancy
Birch, works the streets to pay her way and is unlikely to rise any higher as she continues to drink away her profits. (I had thought she looked slightly tipsy all the time which made me worried about her but it seems like Nancy has her back regardless.)

Marie-Lousie is good at pretending that she doesn’t care. She is a disdainful French girl working for Lydia; but her
hauteur hides her unhappiness. She is anxious to leave Lydia’s employ and when the opportunity presents itself, she
had no compunction about going.

Prince Rasselas is a young molly boy who plies his trade on the streets of Covent Garden. He longs to befriend the
street-girls, but Rasselas also earns coins selling information to the likes of Lydia Quigley. He’ll do what he has to
survive, and to keep those he loves safe.

Thomas is the estate manager and loyal servant of the Howard family. Haxby sees himself as the true protector of the
family’s prosperity and dignity. Yet he has been installed in his London house by George Howard, and set the
demeaning task of indulging and looking after a whore who fritters away the family money.

also found it interesting that the press packet mentions that “Lydia’s Achilles heel is her spoilt
and dissolute son, Charles.” obviously she cares more about him than we’ve seen her let on at times.