The secret findings of a government inquiry into the "headless man" scandal which rocked high society in the 1960s have finally been made public.
Actor Douglas Fairbanks jnr has been identified as the figure shown in explicit Polaroid pictures which were produced at the divorce case between the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.
The results of an inquiry undertaken by Lord Denning to identify the mystery figure were made available to a team from Channel 4 for a documentary to be shown tonight. The programme - Secret History: The Duchess And The Headless Man - says Fairbanks was among a list of 88 men the duke had thought to be among his wife's lovers, thought to have included government figures, members of the Royal Family, and film stars.
The sexually explicit pictures, which show the duchess performing a sex act with the "headless man", were a key piece of evidence in the scandalous 1963 divorce case.
The judge, Mr Justice Wheatley, said the duchess indulged in "disgusting sexual activities to gratify a basic sexual appetite".
Since then the mystery has remained, although there has been speculation about who the man's identity. Fairbanks, who died earlier this year at the age of 90, had been named as a possible suspect, but continually denied any involvement.
The duchess herself remained silent on the subject of her lovers, but the fallout from the scandal spilled over into the political world.
The divorce case was heard in the same month that John Profumo, then secretary of state for war, lied to the House of Commons about his relationship with Ms Christine Keeler.
As if that was not enough to rock the Macmillan Government, the then defence secretary, Duncan Sandys, told a Cabinet meeting on June 20th, 1963, that he was rumoured to be the person in the snaps. Sandys, who in 1974 was given a peerage to become Lord Duncan-Sandys, and who died in November 1987, was reported to have said of the rumour: "There's safety in numbers."
Lord Denning was asked to investigate.
There were hand-written captions on some of the erotic photographs the duchess had, so Lord Denning tried to match the handwriting.
Five key suspects were invited to the Treasury, on the pretence of helping with a delicate matter, and each was asked to sign the visitors' register. A top graphologist was then instructed to analyse the script.
Broadcaster Peter Jay, who as a young Treasury official had helped Lord Denning at the time, said: "The headless man identified by the handwriting expert and therefore identified by Lord Denning, though he didn't write this down in his report, was in fact the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr."
Sandys appeared to be in the clear, but programme-makers for Channel 4 now believe he was implicated in other photographs.
The duchess took the identity of a second man captured on film to her grave, but she did give a vital clue to her confidant, Mr Paul Vaughan.
He told the programme: "She did say to me quite clearly that `of course sweetie, the only Polaroid camera in the country at this time had been lent to the Ministry of Defence'."
At the time the photographs were taken - the film was dated to 1956 - Sandys was the secretary of state for defence. The programme team believes this was a clear sign that he was the second lover.