The Duchess Pictures Telegraph article on the filming of The Duchess The Duchess sees Keira Knightley return once again to period drama after a string of starring roles in The Edge of Love, Atonement and Pride and Prejudice.She plays Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as teenager and adult in the life story of the controversial 18th-century aristocrat, based on Amanda Foreman’s best-selling novel.Ralph Fiennes is the Duke, but their marriage is an unhappy one and scandal is not far away.A poisonous m énage à trois develops between the couple and Lady Elizabeth Foster (Hayley Atwell).Bess becomes good friends with the Duchess – but also her husband’s lover.Whig politician Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper) becomes infatuated with Georgiana and they also embark on an affair.Due to her beauty and liberal politics, the Duchess becomes a favourite of the people, in spite of her fraught private life.An ancestor of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, parallels might be drawn between the two women’s dramatic lives in the public eye.