Robert Maxwell at a party on his yacht with daughter Ghislaine and wife Elisabeth, 1990
(Picture: Mirrorpix/Getty Images)“There is a world in which the rich and powerful operate and it is a different world,” says producer Colin Barr and after watching his three-part BBC documentary House of Maxwell it’s hard to disagree. The series draws a thread from the schmoozing and corrupt business practices of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who drowned in 1991, to the conviction last year of his socialite daughter Ghislaine for recruiting and grooming women and girls on behalf of her former lover, the billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
These people socialised with Prime Ministers, presidents and, notoriously, Prince Andrew, and they operated outside the bounds of decency. With the central programme dedicated to the collapse of the sprawling, impoverished empire inherited by sons Ian and Kevin Maxwell on their father’s death, it’s almost a classic three-act tragedy, of a dynasty brought down by hubris, greed and sex. “The Maxwell story falls into the shape of many Greek or Shakespearean myths,” Barr agrees.
