Then, 32 years after she was forced to resign her crown, Miss America formally apologised to the star. “You have lived your life in grace and dignity, and never was it more evident than during the events of 1984 when you resigned,” Miss America CEO Sam Haskell said in 2015.

The TV series, which is in the works at Sony Pictures Television, will be part of the new wave of projects re-examining the stories of women who were shamed in the media. It joins titles like last year’s Impeachment, which explored the fallout from Bill Clinton’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, and Pam & Tommy, which documented the theft and subsequent distribution of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape (in one episode from the Disney+ show, the couple try to sue the publisher of Penthouse, when they realise he is planning to feature stills from the tape in the magazine).

The latter show hit the headlines for the wrong reasons earlier this year, however, when it emerged that the drama had been made without Anderson’s permission: was this just another form of exploitation, re-hashing a traumatic episode for entertainment dressed up as empowerment?

Vanessa Williams is telling the story behind her Miss America scandal in a new TV show