Season 1 • Episode 2
LatestReturning to India to star in a movie Queenie must avoid the vindictive eye of her old schoolmate.
A half-caste beauty emigrates from India to Great Britain, pursues fame and fortune at the cost of personal happiness, and becomes a Hollywood movie star while suppressing the truth of her heritage.
Costume
Mia Sara's wardrobe does half the emotional heavy lifting.
Acting
Claire Bloom as the mother who chose whiteness over love.
Production
1987 TV budget somehow conjuring 1930s Bombay and London.
Mia Sara
Queenie Kelly
Kirk Douglas
David Konig
Gary Cady
Lucien Chambrun
Claire Bloom
Vicky Kelley
Chaim Topol
Dimitri Goldner
Sarah Miles
Lady Sybil Rumsey
Joel Grey
Aaron Diamond
Serena Gordon
Prunella Rumsey
Joss Ackland
Sir Burton Rumsey
Leigh Lawson
Uncle Morgan
Albert Moses
Inspector Gopal
Ernest Clark
Sir Philip Wentworth
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Michael Korda's novel, itself loosely inspired by his aunt Merle Oberon's real-life hidden Anglo-Indian heritage. The family secret Korda grew up with became this gloriously soapy miniseries.
Mia Sara was fresh off Ferris Bueller when she took this—her attempt at 'serious actress' credibility that 1987 critics mostly ignored. The miniseries format let her do what '80s Hollywood wouldn't: actual character development across hours.
US
