The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Bullying, lies, corruption, hypocrisy. And Brussels
A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL: Sunday, BBC One CARRY ON BRUSSELS Wednesday, Channel 4
Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Stephen Frears, A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL launched itself upon us on a wave – nay, a veritable tsunami – of hype. Thankfully, it didn’t disappoint.
This three-part dramatisation of the notorious Jeremy Thorpe saga features Hugh Grant rebelling against hapless rom-com type as the onetime leader of the Liberal Party, who exploited his privileged position to quash the careerthreatening truth of his homosexual affair with a young man by the name of Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw).
There’s more to this extraordinary tale than that, but I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who aren’t familiar with the details. Suffice to say, it doesn’t end well.
Grant and Whishaw are rather marvellous in their respective roles. There’s barely a trace of the standard ‘Hugh Grant’ persona in his portrayal of Thorpe; he fully inhabits this gregarious character, with his habitually amused smirk, port-soaked timbre and underlying conflict.
Grant, with age, has developed a vaguely reptilian, lived-in carapace. He’s still abundantly likeable, but the flinty edge that’s always lurked beneath his “Oh golly gosh” shtick is now fully exposed. You can tell that he’s having an absolute ball in this complex role.
His performance as Thorpe channels Peter Cook’s Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling while suggesting a living, breathing human being. No mean feat.
Whishaw is in danger of being typecast as a wide-eyed ingénue, it’s a role he’s essayed several times in the past, but he’s just so darn good as Scott. He plays him in the manner of an innocent lamb tragically unware of his gory destiny.
RTD (as all the cool kids call him) does an excellent job of driving this saga along while placing it in sharp historical context. He tackles the overarching themes of endemic homophobia, corruption and hypocrisy with characteristic grit, wit and fleetfingered energy.
Episode one traced Thorpe’s relatively effortless ascent of the political ladder and his increasingly desperate attempts to hide his secret affair with Scott. He was posh, confident and charming, so no wonder the public took to him. However, a hefty percentage of that same public would turn on him instantly if they discovered he was gay. Thorpe, a canny career politician, was acutely aware of this. He supported the legalisation of homosexuality in 1967, but privately confided that he would blow his brains out if his sexuality was ever exposed. Powerful public figures couldn’t be openly gay in that far off yet relatively recent age, it simply wasn’t allowed.
A top-tier piece of television drama, A Very English Scandal examines its thorny subject matter with admirable shades of grey nuance.
Those slippery corridors of political power were also the setting for CARRY ON BRUSSELS, a grimly absorbing new documentary series following various British MEP’s as they struggle with Brexit turbulence in the European Parliament.
It exposed the bitter and emotionallycharged divisions between Leavers and Remainers as they prepare to detach themselves from this Byzantine hub.
Unsurprisingly, the UKIP MEPs came across as stubbornly uncooperative, bullying nuisances with zero interest in the complicated nature of the matters at hand. Their political rivals, who regarded these buffoons with understandably sighing despair, reminded me of Tim from The Office gazing at the camera in mute, pleading disbelief as David Brent committed yet another oblivious faux pas. Except there was nothing funny about watching the fate of our nation sliding down the U-bend. Lives are being destroyed by these selfish, idiotic clowns.