Hugh is back on TV... as shamed Thorpe
POSING in a three-piece suit and trilby, this is Hugh Grant filming his first television drama in more than 20 years.
The 57-year-old actor is playing former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe in a major threepart BBC series.
A Very British Scandal tells the story of how Thorpe was tried and acquitted for conspiring to murder his ex-lover Norman Scott, played by Ben Wishaw.
The pair had been in a relationship in the early 1960s when
Conspiring to murder
homosexuality was illegal. Thorpe was later accused of ordering Scott’s murder after becoming concerned about their affair affecting his political career.
He was the first British politician to stand trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder. The 31-day trial at the Old Bailey was headline news, with Thorpe’s acquittal coming after the jury spent 52 hours considering its verdicts. He died in 2014, aged 85.
Grant’s last role in a TV drama was a one-off appearance in US series The Nanny in 1996. A Very British Scandal is written by ex-Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies and directed by Stephen Frears.