Ian Smith: Effie Gray & John Ruskin (A Very Victorian Scandal)

2025-11-25

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Effie Gray and John Ruskin looked like the perfect Victorian power couple: she, bright and brilliant; he, the era’s leading art critic. But behind the portraits was one of history’s strangest age-gap marriages. Unconsummated, uncomfortable, and the sort of story that would make Gen Z turn away in horror.This week on The Way They Were, Gráinne and Chantal team up with one of Britain’s best stand-ups, Ian Smith, to look at the grottiest couples we've ever looked at on the show.

Effie Gray and John Ruskin looked like the perfect Victorian power couple: she, bright and brilliant; he, the era’s leading art critic. But behind the portraits was one of history’s strangest age-gap marriages. Unconsummated, uncomfortable, and the sort of story that would make Gen Z turn away in horror.

This week on The Way They Were, Gráinne and Chantal team up with one of Britain’s best stand-ups, Ian Smith, to look at the grottiest couples we've ever looked at on the show.

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