A Very English Scandal
B OX S E T
Hugh Grant gives one the best performances of his career as disgraced Liberal politician Jeremy Thorpe in this perfectly pitched three-part political drama from Russell T Davies which first aired on BBC One in 2018.
Based on John Preston’s 2016 book of the same name, it is a dramatisation of the 1970s scandal involving Thorpe, which culminated in his 1979 trial for conspiring to murder his troubled young boyfriend Norman Scott, and the 15 years of events leading up to it. Charismatic and mediasavvy, energetic and ambitious, Thorpe was a shining star in British politics in the 1960s and 70s, becoming leader of the Liberal Party while still in his 30s and steering it towards becoming a party of real influence. He was also a closeted gay man who had come of age at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.
His affair with a much younger man, model Norman Scott (a brilliant performance from Ben Whishaw), was conducted in secret, unbeknownst to his devoted wife, and for a while was a source of great happiness for both men. Once things went wrong and Scott became troublesome, threatening to go to the press, Thorpe mistakenly took advice from his Machiavellian best friend Peter Bissell (a skin-crawlingly good
Alex Jennings) to hire someone to scare Norman off. Needless to say, things got out of hand resulting in the infamous trial. (Thorpe was acquitted but it ended his career). Davies’s script gets the balance just right – finding the comedy as well as the pathos in this complex situation – with Grant and Whishaw both on outstanding form creating portrayals that are compelling, human and relatable.