- Title: The World's Most Successful Madam
- Date: 24th February 2005
- Summary: When Margaret McDonald was jailed in France in 2002 for running an escort service spanning Europe, there was shock and intrigue in equal measure. Who was this person that even her friends didn't recognise? What turns a convent-educated Home Counties girl into the ruthless head of a sex empire? Was it greed? A troubled mind? Or a broken heart? It's a question that's gone unanswered until now. In this film, Margaret McDonald tells her extraordinary story for the first time. She talks of her twin obsessions, sex and money, and how they earned her the dubious distinction of being The World's Most Successful Madam . The documentary meets Margaret as she swaps prison for a five-star hotel and a shopping trip to Chanel. It's the lifestyle she grew used to with the fortune she amassed from the 600 escorts she had on her books across 25 countries, but one she is no longer able to keep up indefinitely. One of her parole conditions is taking a "proper job", a far cry from the life of leisure she used to enjoy. One thing troubling her even more than her reduced circumstances is contacting her mother, a prospect that fills her with dread; her family was rocked by her arrest, since they had no idea of her sex empire. Margaret explains how she fell into the sex industry, how she developed her empire and how she ran it. She also chats candidly about her extravagant lifestyle, her arrest and subsequent time in one of France's most notorious prisons, and how she still feels she did nothing wrong. The programme follows Margaret home to Windsor as she tries to pluck up the courage to go and see her mother, wonders what to do with her future and goes on her first date - with a married man who wrote to her in prison - in years, at a three-Michelin star restaurant, of course. As well as Margaret herself, other contributors to the programme include her former escorts - male and female - her school friends and the French police, who believe it is only a matter of time before Margaret returns to her old ways.
- Description:A documentary on Margaret MacDonald the well-spoken British Madam who until recently ran an international ring of high class prostitutes.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Crosshands Ltd. Trading As Acp Television
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:24/02/2005
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 2000s