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The Aristocrats - 1x01 Blenheim Palace

Offering an exclusive insight into one of the most famous - and historically one of the bitterest - father and son relationships in Britain, this film follows a story of reconciliation and redemption.

'Sunny', 11th Duke of Marlborough, a former Guards officer, is 86 years old, courteous and fastidious. His 56-year-old son is formally known as the Marquess of Blandford, and less formally as Jamie Blandford. Jamie's excessive lifestyle and battles with drug addiction have been widely covered British media for most of his life.

This is the first time he has appeared in a documentary. At stake is the inheritance of the biggest palace in Britain, Blenheim. The Duke, John 'Sunny' Spencer-Churchill, has dedicated his life to maintaining and safeguarding it.

Bigger than Buckingham and Windsor, with 187 rooms and measuring 200,000 square feet, the palace was given to the Marlboroughs as a gift from a grateful nation after the first Duke fought the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.

But after the Duke fell out with Queen Anne, he was saddled with paying for the rest of the construction, and the family joke that they have been fighting the 'Battle of Blenheim' ever since.

Sunny's solution was to open it up to mass tourism, and every year Blenheim receives 500,000 visitors.

Worried about the potential repercussions for Blenheim of his son's addiction, Sunny went to court in 1994 to disinherit his son: the first time an aristocrat had done so for 100 years.

Jamie contested the case and eventually the two men reached a compromise: when his father died Jamie would inherit the title and the right to live in the palace, but a group of trustees would control the place and decide how much influence any Duke has.

Now clean, and reconciled with his father, Jamie is back living on the estate, hoping to prove to Sunny and the all-powerful trustees that he is fit and able to take on the 'Battle of Blenheim'.

The cameras are there during the peak tourist season, often th

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  • Aired Nov 22, 2012
  • Episode 1x01
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