‘The Bowie of his era’: new biopic charts wild life of cross-dressing Victorian peer

Madfabulous explores story of flamboyant 19th-century marquess of Anglesey, and offers an ‘overdue celebration’ of his life

It’s the costume drama plot with the startlingly up-to-date twist: the fifth marquess of Anglesey, a scandalously extravagant, cross-dressing peer of the realm, who cavorted around north Wales in the late 19th century, now has his own biopic – and it is a tribute he surely would have relished. The makers of Madfabulous, which has just filmed on location in Anglesey (Ynys Môn), believe their starry version of his extraordinary story is an overdue celebration of the non-conforming aristocrat, born Henry Paget and nicknamed “Toppy”.

Revealing details of the opulent new film for the first time this weekend, the director Celyn Jones said the germ of the project was the moment when he came across a photograph of the flamboyant Paget dressed in one of his elaborate outfits – and then Jones noticed the date: “I looked at the photo again, checked Henry’s story and thought: hang on this is 1890 – and in Anglesey!”