Film - Misbehaviour

Based on the real life events surrounding the 1970 Miss World competition, learn more about the Women's Liberation campaigners that helped inspire the story behind Misbehaviour...

In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head. 

The film is directed by BAFTA winner Philippa Lowthorpe (Three Girls) and stars Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Greg Kinnear, Lesley Manville, Keeley Hawes, Rhys Ifans and Phyllis Logan.

In this featurette, the original protesters - Jo Robinson, Jenny Fortune, Sue Finch, Jane Grant, Sarah Wilson - discuss meeting the actresses that play them, the experience of crashing the Miss World competition, and what the film represents for them.

Misbehaviour was written by Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe, and produced by Suzanne Mackie and Sarah Jane Wheale. Misbehaviour is a Pathé, Ingenious Media, BBC Films, BFI presentation of a Left Bank Pictures production and invades our cinema screens on March 13th.

Image - IMDb