‘Netflix’s number 1 drama delves into my famous family – I had huge reservations’

For decades, Ivana Lowell’s family has been the subject of attention-grabbing headlines.

So, it’s understandable that she had ‘reservations’ about making a TV series focused on her famous ancestors, she tells Metro.

Last week, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight’s new drama, House of Guinness, launched on Netflix.

The eight-part show followed an idea pitched by Ivana, whose grandmother was Maureen Constance Guinness, one of the three Guinness sisters known as the ‘Golden Guinness Girls’.

Following its release, House of Guinness has soared up the Netflix charts, currently sitting at number one in the top 10 list in the UK. Considering that Ivana describes her renowned family as ‘eccentric, complex and ambitious’, that should come as no surprise.

The drama kicks off in the aftermath of the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, the grandson of the brewery’s founder, Arthur Guinness, in 1868.

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The inspiration for the show struck Ivana a decade ago. At a family gathering in Ireland, an episode of Downton Abbey was playing in the background. She thought that her own family history was ‘much juicier’.

A direct descendant of Arthur Guinness, Ivana’s mother, Lady Caroline Blackwood, famously had three well-known husbands in her lifetime – painter Lucian Freud, pianist Israel Citkowitz, and poet Robert Lowell.

She was also a successful writer in her own right, releasing an autobiography that detailed her wealthy yet unhappy childhood.

Her parents were the 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and Maureen Constance Guinness, who was a regular on the 1920s social scene.

The initial plan for the story had been to depict her great-great-great-grandfather ‘burning the hops’ of his now beloved beer in 1759.

However, Steven then suggested that they skip down two generations and focus on the shocking will left by Sir Benjamin. Despite being the richest man in Ireland at the time of his death, he famously left two of his four children without a penny.

Ivana ‘heard a lot’ about her ancestors growing up, with her great-great- grandfather Edward being played by Louis Partridge in House of Guinness.

‘He is fantastic. We joked about him being my great-great-great grandfather when we met on set,’ she explains.

While she might have had the initial idea for the series, Ivana admits that she had ‘huge reservations’ about the television adaptation being made, and so approached her extended family for their approval.

‘We are all very close-knit, so I’m glad they were happy. Writing about one’s family is difficult, and it’s a huge family to write about, but I was very happy with the response. But yes, I was trepidatious,’ she says.

A few years ago, Ivana’s grandmother Maureen was also portrayed in the series A Very British Scandal, in which she whips out a ‘wind-up penis’ to entertain guests at a party – a trick that she was well-known for in real life.

‘My grandmother was hilarious. If she wasn’t a Guinness, she would have been on the stage. She was very funny and loved a practical joke. She had a very bawdy sense of humour. I loved her,’ Ivana says.

Ivana also recalls her grandmother’s intense competitive streak with her sisters, with the trio all seeking out husbands with titles.

‘She got a good one – a Marquess. They all got titles. She was very snobby in that way,’ she adds.

Maureen had a difficult relationship with her daughter Caroline, who shunned her mother’s high society ideals.

‘Everyone thought we were fortunate because we had money, but I never felt any of that,’ Ivana explains of her childhood.

‘My mum was very bohemian and completely rebelled against everything her mother stood for. I never felt fortunate at all. We had a crappy car, there was never any food in our house, and it was very cold.

‘None of the parents of any of our school friends would let us come play because we were the wacky family who lived in the big, scary houses.’

In 2010, Ivana published her memoir, titled Why Not Say What Happened? The book detailed her difficult childhood, in which she faced neglect, sexual abuse and a near-fatal accident. By the time she was 13, she had also faced the deaths of her father, stepfather and sister.

Now 15 years on, does she regret sharing any of the details? ‘No, because I’m not ashamed of them. If I’m going to tell something, I will tell exactly what happened. Why would you hold back?’ she says.

Reflecting further on her life, Ivana remembered the advice that her grandmother imparted to her – a philosophy that the whole Guinness family seems to have embraced over the years.

‘It was never to be dull or boring,’ she says. ‘That was always one thing – we were told never to have dull lives. We could be mad or chaotic. I realised that from a young age.

‘We may not be normal, whatever that is. There was a good sense of that throughout the family.

‘We might be eccentric, but we will never be dull, which I think comes through in the Netflix series. It shows a complex and ambitious family, but one that would never be boring.’

Since the premiere of House of Guinness last week, there’s already been talk of follow-up seasons, with Steven telling Metro: ‘The story continues to be fascinating. Every new generation throws up its own scandals. So, this is a story that could run and run.’

‘What’s the point of doing just one? It’s like what’s the point of having one Guinness?’ he added.

This sentiment is echoed by Ivana, who spent a day on set with her daughter and filmed scenes for the show.

‘We definitely have to [do more seasons]. There are so many good stories to tell. We will obviously keep this cast as they are so good, but then there’s my grandmother in the roaring 20s. This should run and run.’

House of Guinness is now streaming on Netflix.

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