A political cover-up to die for

The salacious saga of charismatic MP Jeremy Thorpe and the bungled plot to kill his lover has been turned into a darkly comic drama starring Hugh Grant. Lisa Sewards went behind the scenes

Almost 39 years ago to the day, Jeremy Thorpe arrived at the Old Bailey in his lawyer’s brown Rolls-Royce for the start of the trial that exposed one of the biggest sex scandals in British politics.

The case in 1979 gripped the country as it unfolded and revealed the most tawdry secrets of the Establishment: illicit sex in the House of Commons, covert love letters, blackmail, a bungled murder plot with an amateur hitman and the cold-blooded shooting of a blameless Great Dane.

The downfall of former Liberal Party leader Thorpe is one of the most bizarre tales to come out of Westminster. Now the BBC is reigniting our fascination with a star-studded mini-series that tells the story of how the Old Etonian was tried for conspiracy to murder his former lover Norman Scott, a dashing young stable lad with whom he had an affair at a time when gay relationships were not only scandalous, but illegal.

The three-part drama A Very English Scandal, from the pen of Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies, is based on the book of the same name by John Preston. It stars Hugh Grant, in his first major television role in almost 25 years, as Thorpe and Ben Whishaw as Scott.

The real affair occurred in the early 60s, and was over within a few years. But Scott, or ‘Bunnies’ as Thorpe nicknamed him because he reminded him of a frightened rabbit, began to pester him for money while threatening to go public with their affair. By the mid1970s, Thorpe, seemingly happily married to his second wife, Marion, Countess of Harewood, had everything to lose if he was exposed.

Scott made such serious threats that Thorpe allegedly asked his closest friends to arrange for him to be killed. This reportedly led to the hiring of Andrew Newton, an airline pilot (played in the drama by The Inbetweeners actor Blake Harrison), to murder Scott. On 24 October, 1975, Newton, posing as a minder hired to protect Scott, took him and Scott’s Great Dane Rinka for a drive on Exmoor. When they stopped on a deserted road, Newton, tellingly known to his associates as Chicken Brain, bungled the job, first shooting Rinka and then allegedly turning the gun on Scott, only for it to jam. Newton drove away, leaving Scott and his dying dog by the roadside.

Four years later, Thorpe and three associates who linked him to Newton – David Holmes, John Le Mesurier (not the actor) and George Deakin – stood trial over the alleged conspiracy. Newton, who had been convicted for the illegal possession of a firearm and an intent to endanger life over the incident, appeared for the prosecution. All four were acquitted, but Scott maintained Thorpe had meant to have him killed and said he would only feel safe when the disgraced politician was dead.

The saga is packed with so much lurid detail it’s no wonder Hugh Grant, who was 18 at the time of Thorpe’s trial, remembers it extremely well. ‘It was all happening when I was at school and it was a source of much sniggering. You know schoolboys. So I do remember it very well,’ he laughs.

‘You have these two people – a very upper-class figure, absolutely part of the Establishment, beautifully dressed and very charismatic, very witty, but also a closet homosexual. And he had an affair with a young, strapping guy from the stables. It was quite romantic, until he realised this guy was quite unstable so he drifted away.

‘But the guy never left him alone, kept plaguing him for money, telling everyone he’d had a relationship with the leader of the Liberal Party. And after years of this, Thorpe – a wellbrought-up politician – said to his friends, “We’ve got to kill him!” But it all went horribly wrong. It caught up with Thorpe and there was the trial at the Old Bailey, with all these incredibly scandalous details and sexual accusations. Everyone loved it!’

What’s even more incredible, he says, is that Thorpe and his co-accused got off. ‘The judge was also a part of the British establishment, and he wanted to keep the nice posh boy out of prison, so he gave a scandalously onesided summing up,’ says Hugh of the judge, Sir Joseph Cantley, who described Scott to the jury with the damning words, ‘He is a crook, he is a fraud. He is a sponger.’

Given all this juicy detail, Hugh, now 57, was intrigued by the TV drama when director Stephen Frears sent him the script. ‘It’s right up my alley. I love things which are funny and sad at the same time, and which rejoice in eccentricity and the oddness of people. And I’ve become very interested in politics so I loved that aspect of it too.’ But he did have reservations about being suitable for the role of Thorpe. ‘When Stephen said, “What do you think?” I said, “Well, which part? I’m 400 years too old to be Thorpe at the start of the film, in his 30s.” I thought he wanted me to play Rinka the dog.’

Hugh was also wary of facing the discerning British viewing public. ‘I thought, everyone’s going to watch

‘I was 18 when the trial was on. It caused sniggering’

this, and I’m frightened of British audiences. I panicked and read every book there is on the subject; I met people who knew Thorpe; I dug up old films, some from the bowels of the BBC that haven’t been seen before. And it seemed to soothe me a bit.’

In his first lead TV role since the 1993 drama The Changeling, Hugh was impressed by the quality of the production. ‘I regret to say – because I’m the last person who’s snobbish about these things – that it’s television, but very classy television. Russell T Davies really brought out the black humour of the story.’ And the part is very much a departure from the romcom characters that made him famous. ‘People seem to think I can only play one character, which is not true,’ he says. ‘I’ve gnashed my teeth over the years when people have said, “Oh, he

only plays one part”, because I can do different things if I’m allowed to.’

The complexity of the character was a key attraction. ‘There’s a tragedy there. There’s a scene where Thorpe’s friend and colleague, Peter Bessell, asks him about Scott, “Did you love him?” And Thorpe’s uneasy because I think he did but then he buried it. Even while being tormented by Scott, and while he was trying to kill him, he loved him.’

Hugh was fascinated by the dualities in Thorpe. ‘I interviewed lots of people, some of Jeremy’s friends and colleagues who had known him and are still alive, and it was very interesting. Half of them said, “No, it wasn’t possible that Jeremy could even hurt a fly, he was the most gentle man you’d ever meet.” And the other half said, “Well… there was another side to Jeremy that you’d want to watch out for, because he was ruthlessly, ruthlessly ambitious.”’

A Very English Scandal marks the third time Hugh has worked with Ben Whishaw. They starred together in Cloud Atlas in 2012, and in last year’s Paddington 2 Hugh played evil Phoenix Buchanan, who tries to do away with the bear, voiced by Whishaw.

‘So I’ve been trying to kill Ben for

two years,’ jokes Hugh. ‘And there are some torrid love scenes in this series. It was a particularly strange experience for me because Ben was the voice of Paddington, so there I was, being passionate with Paddington Bear!’

Ben agrees. ‘This was a vastly different role. And Hugh’s very funny, very committed and brilliant. I feel the real Jeremy and Norman met their match in each other, in charisma, strength of character and cleverness. They could both give as good as they got. And I think this was part of their continuing obsession with each other.

‘ I had never heard of Jeremy Thorpe before this series but it was a revelation in terms of the ridiculousness of it all. It’s like a black comedy but this drama is not belittling the events. It’s just recognising the absurdity of life.’

When we meet on set, Ben is wearing a thick, black wig and a shirt which is stained with Rinka’s ‘blood’. He’s just been filming the murder scenes where the dog is shot dead. While the scenes with Hugh have been a breeze, he says managing the ‘actors’ playing Rinka has been more problematic.

‘I like horses but it’s difficult to act with dogs, they don’t do the same

‘There was another side to Jeremy. He was ruthless’

thing twice,’ says Ben, 37. ‘We went through four Great Danes for filming. They were big and beautiful – but very thick. One didn’t want to co- operate at all. But there was a lovely moment with one of the Rinkas where she picks up on Norman’s distress and suddenly she was licking me. But she didn’t do that every time.’

Hugh had an equally hard time with some of his co-stars. ‘It’s the old cliché, animals and children. Animals were Ben’s problem, but it was children for me. The baby (who played Thorpe’s son Rupert from his first marriage) was the first of about 200 who appeared throughout the series. They were all enchanting, but some of them felt the same way about acting as the Great Danes. When I was trying to do my best I’d be upstaged by a howling child. And on a film set nowadays you have to be extraordinarily nice to children. Not like me at home, I can’t shake them,’ he jokes.

He is, of course, referring to his growing brood. His first child arrived in September 2011, when his thengirlfriend, Tinglan Hong, a receptionist at a London Chinese restaurant, gave birth to Tabitha. It was a surprise, Hugh said, but a most welcome one. The pair went on to have a son, Felix. Hugh’s also had three children – a boy called John, a girl and a new baby who arrived earlier this year – with Swedish television producer Anna Eberstein. ‘I have,’ he comments dryly, ‘been having a child every Thursday lately.’

To his own surprise, he is loving fatherhood. ‘All those clichés you hear are true. You’re not No 1 in your world any more, you’re No 2. And then No 3 and 4 and so on. It’s made me nicer. Well, I was a very nice person anyway, and being a father has made me even nicer!’ he laughs.

So, how would he rate his parenting skills? ‘Well.’ He thinks for a moment. ‘I’m all right. Without a hangover I’m marvellously patient. And I’m very anti being the helicopter parent, and there’s a lot of that in west London. You never see a child left to play by itself – there’s always a pushy parent around, and that’s not my style. When I was young, I played rugby from the age of eight to 18, or longer, and my father only came to watch me once, and I was never remotely upset by that. These days, it seems that no child plays a game of football or anything without 300 relations on the touchline. I suppose times have changed, but for me the old-fashioned way is just fine.’

No wonder Hugh, like Russell T Davies and Stephen Frears, enjoyed the old-fashioned British eccentricity of their latest drama. ‘It’s dark and funny at the same time. Like when Norman Scott is held in a police station, and his landlady comes to get him out of trouble. And she walks up to the desk and she says, “Hello, I’m Mrs Edna Friendship.” You couldn’t make it up,’ laughs Russell.

And Stephen adds, ‘It’s irredeemably English, isn’t it? It’s an account of what it’s like to live in England, to be English. It’s forever England.’

Hugh agrees with him. ‘It’s the celebration of the oddity of life, particularly English life,’ he says. ‘We’re an odd bunch.’

A Very English Scandal begins on BBC1 later this month.

‘The story is a celebration of the oddity of English life’

Hugh Grant as Thorpe and Ben Whishaw as Scott in the drama