A Very English Scandal - BBC

No air date yet, beyond “later in May”. But yes, I’m very excited about it. I read a biography of Thorpe and he was a fascinating character, astonishing how he reacted to Scott and brought about his own downfall.

This looks really tasty! The Radio Times website has a link to a longer trailer btw.

I can't wait! Our MPs are so dull nowadays. I rather like it when they have a sex scandal.

Jeremy Thorpe always made me think he was a man out of his time he came over as more Edwardian than late 20th century- no bad thing I might add !

Russell T Davis was on The One Show the day talking about this.

To be honest, I'm surprised that Hugh Grant is doing this. Not because of the subject matter but because I was at the Q & A after the preview screening of Florence Foster Jenkins at the BFI and he said that (basically) he was retired now.

Given that statement I was equally surmised at his choice to do Paddington 2.

I think he kind of decided to retire unless the script was good enough to be worth the bother, and having let that be known, people suddenly started sending him really good scripts!

Hugh who has always effectively played Hugh wasn't an obvious choice to play Thorpe who always looked a slightly slimy type which Hugh certainly isn't. The nearest actor who really looked like Thorpe in my mind was Milton Johns who used to play a lot of sycophantic characters back in the day but he would be much too old now.

But from the clips I've seen Hugh and the costume/make up people look as if they have done a great job and he bares an uncanny likeness to Thorpe and despite being 57 can realistically play Thorpe when he was in his 30's and 40's.

Hugh is probably at the stage of his career where he is looking for more challenging and quality roles and this could well be a contender come awards time if well received.

I heartily agree – and I was around when the whole thing was happening for real. The amazing thing is how Hugh Grant has just become Jeremy Thorpe!  I think the real Thorpe did actually appear to be older than he actually was, perhaps because as an MP and then leader of the Liberal Party he had to present a certain gravitas in his public life. 

One odd thought that occurred to me was that I couldn't help wondering whether, as in Shakespearian tragedy where there is a fatal flaw that causes the downfall of the main character, whether had Thorpe bothered to get a new National Insurance Card for Norman Josiffe/Scott as he was asked to do, whether all the followed might not have happened! 

Anyway, it's fascinating stuff, whichever way one looks at it!

Splendid! Well paced too I thought. Some lovely tender moments alongside funny ones. Really like this cast. Excited for episode 2.

I remember when the scandal broke too. I was still at school then. The thing I remember was how explicit all the accounts in the papers were. They quoted from Thorpe’s x-rated letters to Bunnie. It may be the way the press reported it but Scott came across as somewhat hysterical and unhinged. Thorpe was well liked by the public. Certainly my parents were on his side. This drama is great. Grant IS Thorpe.

I enjoyed this. Hugh Grant certainly did well, not a trace of his normal acting persona. Funnily enough I wanted to write a play about Thorpe and had Rufus Sewell in mind as ideal casting but Grant did very well.

Jeremy Thorpe came across as a breath of fresh air set against the stuffier, older men he was up against (pun not intended) in Heath and Wilson. He dressed in an Edwardian manner and spoke posh but his mischievous sense of humour - "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life" - and gaiety (again unintentional) made him seem much more with it and led to the first Liberal mini-breakthrough.

Although it is fair enough to use it as such, if that is the director's intent, the insurance card was not a fatal flaw. The fatal flaw was to get himself involved with a nutter for the sake of a few shags. This, and the perceived invulnerability we have come to expect from MPs', is what showed his judgement to be very poor and makes him a side-note of history rather than a great lost leader. One can sympathise with the effect exposure would have had; a criminal prosecution, the end of his political career and financial ruin. But even if this bio does plump on the side that he was the inspiration for an attempted murder, rather than the alternative explanation that he only wanted to scare Scott, his behaviour when threatened was unacceptable.

Very much looking forward to the next episodes.

Hugh Grant is really coming into his own now that he is getting older. He seems to have felt cursed by his prettiness which, while it brought him fame and fortune, also gave him a career that he seemed to consider a bit superficial. Now he is getting work that he seems proud of. He should be proud of the plaudits he got for Paddington 2 and Florence Foster Jenkins. I have never been a fan of his because I’ve heard some not very nice things about him from friends (most of my friends are from the wrong side of the tracks compared to him) but it is pleasing to see an actor coming into their own as they get older - I wish the same for female performers in his age bracket.

Not for me. Scott, or Josiffe, was a significant architect in his own downfall. Thorpe was culpable but Scott was an adult and his vulnerability was not immediately apparent - not talking about the TV show here but in real life. He cottoned on to the possibility of gaining advantage from his meeting with Thorpe very quickly, it was just as pre-meditated as Thorpe's "seduction".

He was mentally ill and approached Thorpe for help while penniless, homeless, without an NI card and after discharging himself from a psychiatric care clinic. He may have legally been an adult but it was hardly a relationship of equals.