Swanson, the youngest and most beautiful of the ladies in the film, flirts with each available male and even has an affair with a Japanese commander. The Spanish Gardener (1956) is the story of a stuffed-shirt British ambassador who is worried about losing his little son's devotion, who is closer to his gardener than to him. It was based on a novel by John Braine. Swanson was born in London but grew up in Switzerland where her father was diplomatic representative. She returned to England to study acting and dancing and then moved back to Switzerland where she worked as a model before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1955 she came back to England and got a job as a dresser on this film. The Spanish Gardener was her first role. She didn't like playing pranks so they asked someone else to play that part. After this film she went back to Switzerland again but came back two years later for more filming in England. This time she decided to stay there. Swanson was married three times: first to actor Peter Bowles, second to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was later to become Prince Charles's husband; and third to Swiss businessman Hans Stucki. She had one child with her first husband and two with her second marriage. Her daughter died at age six after having leukemia for several months. Before marrying her third husband she had lived in a house near Versailles owned by his family.