Who was Florence Foster Jenkins? American socialite and amateur singer whose life was made into a movie

FLORENCE Foster Jenkins may have been dubbed the world's worst singer but almost 75 years after her death her name remains synonymous with the world of opera.

The American socialite's legacy has long been preserved in stage productions as well as a 2016 bio-pic with Meryl Streep. Here's everything you need to know about Florence...

Who was Florence Foster Jenkins?

Born July 19, 1868, Narcissa Florence Foster grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania as the daughter of Charles Dorrance Foster, an attorney and descendant of a wealthy land-owning family.

The future amateur singer was a talented pianist growing up who desired to study music in Europe but was denied by her father.

Following this, Florence reacted by eloping with Frank Thronton Jenkins to Philadelphia in 1885, however, Florence left her husband within a year after contracting syphilis from him.

She retained the Jenkins surname and moved to New York City. In 1909, she met Shakespearean actor St.Clair Bayfield whom she was in a relationship with until her death in 1944 aged 76.

Why was she called the world's worst opera singer?

After an arm injury derailed her aspirations as a pianist, Florence switched focus to resume her career as a singer, owing to her father's death that had made her the beneficiary of a sizable trust.

She immersed herself in wealthy New York City social clubs where she often became the chairman of music and would produce lavish productions where she'd be cast as the lead.

In 1917 she founded her own social organization, the Verdi Club but throughout her career, she'd only perform in select company excluding music critics.

At the age of 76, she yielded to public demand and performed for a general-admission audience for the first time at Carnegie Hall in an infamous production that was universally ridiculed.

Five days after the concert, she suffered a heart attack and died a month later. It was the historian Stephen Pile who ranked her "the world's worst opera singer".

What was the movie adaption about and is it on TV?

Florence Foster Jenkins has been the inspiration for five stage productions since her death but most recently, she was the subject of the 2016 biographical film.

The movie starts in 1944 and focuses specifically on the Carnegie Hall performance and the relationship between Florence and her second husband Bayfield.

It stars Meryl Streep in what became her 20th Academy Award nomination for Best Actress as Florence and Hugh Grant as Bayfield.

The film airs on BBC One Sunday, August 5, 2018, at 20:15 PM.