Black Mirror's Dorothy Chambers analysed and the real-life Hollywood parallels

WARNING: Spoiler alert for Black Mirror Hotel Reverie fans!

Netflix has dropped the entire seventh season of Black Mirror, and viewers are already buzzing about the six fresh episodes, especially the love-infused Hotel Reverie.

The intriguing episode explores a futuristic tech that lets actors dive into classic black-and-white films to craft modern remakes.

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Hollywood's darling Brandy Friday, portrayed by Issa Rae, gets the gig of a lifetime in the 1940s flick Hotel Reverie, alongside her idol Dorothy Chambers, played by Emma Corrin.

A quirky twist traps Brandy inside the movie with Dorothy, sparking an unexpected romance, reports .

Hotel Reverie delves deep, uncovering Dorothy's hidden life as a lesbian during a time when society shunned such truths.

Fans are abuzz, wondering if Dorothy's character has roots in reality.

While no direct inspiration for Dorothy has been confirmed, Black Mirror's mastermind Charlie Brooker has mentioned Brief Encounter as an influence for Hotel Reverie, having watched it before penning the episode with Bisha K. Ali.

Brooker describes the essence of Hotel Reverie: "It's a story in which somebody is thrown inside a film like Casablanca and then they have to bring the story to an end in order to survive. It's like The Purple Rose of Cairo meets Back to the Future, but through a lens."

Dame Harriet Walter, during the filming of Hotel Reverie, reminisced about a classic favourite, saying: "We also had Brief Encounter on a loop, which was wonderful. You look at that and the acting was so brilliant."

She added, "We didn't hear Celia Johnson's voice, we just saw her face, and could see what went over that face in a matter of seconds, the number of emotions that went through it."

The new flick Hotel Reverie might strike some familiar chords with fans of Hollywood's Golden Era.

Celia Johnson's influential role in Brief Encounter has echoes in Hotel Reverie. Her portrayal of Laura Jesson - a married woman entangled in an emotional affair - clearly left its mark.

Then there's Marilyn Monroe, whose tragic tale resonates with a storyline in Hotel Reverie. Much like the character Dorothy, Monroe's life came to a heartbreaking end with an overdose.

Beyond her celebrated career, Monroe's personal life was riddled with sorrow, marked by two failed marriages and a childhood marred by her mother's mental health issues and her own struggles in foster care.

And finally, Marlene Dietrich, praised for challenging gender norms with her onscreen wardrobe choices in films such as Morocco and The Scarlet Empress, certainly carved a path for many characters in contemporary cinema.

Echoing sultry Hollywood roles, the iconic Marlene Dietrich was often seen in perfectly tailored tuxedos as Dr Alex Palmer, while off-screen she embraced a life of freedom and romance. The Washington Post columnist Diana McLellan depicted Dietrich's vivid love life in her book The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood, saying, "Marlene was perhaps the busiest and most passionate bisexual in theatrical Berlin... (she had) a notorious and compulsive appetite for the sexual seduction of other beautiful women."

According to the Daily Express, Dietrich and Greta Garbo were entangled in a romance that turned sour, leading to an acrimonious falling out.

Despite her own list of lovers, Dietrich expressed astonishment at Garbo's romantic conquests in a letter to her husband Rudolph Sieber, with whom she shared a lifelong open marriage: "I don't understand how she gets them all."

It's rumoured that both Garbo and Dietrich had affairs with the likes of actor John Gilbert and actress de Acosta. Garbo, unlike the unabashed Dietrich, maintained a cloak of privacy over her private affairs.

Black Mirror season 7 is streaming on Netflix now