In the first essay of the week, shedding light on key figures of the Georgian era, biographer Claire Tomalin explores the life of Dora Jordan, the greatest comic actress of her day and renowned for being lover to the future king.

The rest of the essays in this series are by the actor and writer Ian Kelly on actor, playwright, and theatre manager David Garrick; historian Amanda Vickery on Lancashire gentlewoman Elizabeth Parker Shackleton; writer and cartoonist Martin Rowson on Hogarth and historian Dan Cruikshank on architect Robert Adam.

Producer: Mohini Patel.