Shame and Scandal '63: An Uncensored Guide to the Profumo Affair

In this map and guide we chart the brief, intense period of the Profumo Scandal of 1963. A tangled affair that shocked the establishment, bringing together Russian spies, senior politicians, teenage 'good-time girls', slumlords and sundry inhabitabitants of London's demi-monde.

Cliveden Estate, July 1961: 19-year-old model Christine Keeler is introduced to John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. The pair embark on a brief affair, however, Christine is also enjoying the attention of Yevgeny Ivanov a Soviet agent who is being monitored by MI5. The man who links this trio is osteopath Dr Stephen Ward.

That would likely have been the end of the story had other elements of Keeler's life not spiralled out of control. In October 1962, on the day that Khruschev vows to dismantle Soviet missiles in Cuba, over 4000 miles away in London's Soho a brutal knife fight for her affections would culminate that Christmas in gunfire in a quiet mews in Marylebone. Rumours of ministerial shenanigans, call girls and spies now gain a new lease of life and the press are at liberty to join the dots between Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies, John Profumo and an ever-expanding cast of those on the fringes of a sexually liberated London underworld.