Desperate Romantics

Episode 1

Episode #1.1

52 mins

Fred Walters recalls his friendship with the Victorian artists who called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Initially patronizing they welcome him into their circle when he secures the modelling services of Lizzie Siddal with her long auburn tresses.Rossetti also engages another redhead, barmaid Annie Miller, but Hunt is wholly smitten by Lizzie. The boys' early work is not popular but Fred persuades the influential - and unhappily married - art critic and writer John Ruskin to lend his name in support. Lizzie and Hunt argue and she becomes Rossetti's muse whilst Annie seduces Hunt. Fred and John Millais persuade Mrs. Ruskin to bring her husband to their exhibition. Charles Dickens scoffs at their work but Ruskin extols its virtues.