A very English scandal

[Cistersaredoingitforthemselves]

Looking forward to seeing this

I have read the book and it was excellent.

I remember this happening and it being one of the earliest political scandals I was aware of ( and actually understood) - Watergate was my first but I was only small and didn't understand

Peter Bessell - the owner of a face like a badly tessellated pavement

Probably the best caption of a photo ever

Hugh Grant has got the slightly grubby look that Thorpe had down pat. The production has the look of the sixties too, all glamour on the surface, but very Brentford Nylon underneath.

Well that was brilliant - having read the book and being around when all this happened I knew the story but it was very well done ... so far

IPlayer link:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p065smy4/a-very-english-scandal-series-1-episode-1

You need to set up an online account first to watch it.

Watching it now, cheers

Alex Jennings (Bessell) excellent. He was in The Lady in the Van as Alan Bennett and was the lead in A Dance to the Music of Time years ago. HG and BW good too. I remember this happening. Amazing closing of ranks by the Establishment. Hope we get Peter Cook's judge sketch from The Secret Policeman's Ball at the end.

Hugh Grant's hair isn't quite dark enough

Hugh Grant was brilliant!! Loved it! He needed a gritty part, he’s a very good actor. Great cast, looking forward to ep 2. Did anyone else notice ‘Wray’ from Nuts in May?

I thought it was excellent. No one comes out of it well.

Ooh thanks for this. Just old enough to have heard the names but never really understood what happened.

Just starting it now. HG looks like one of the Fox brothers!

If you want to know how the Weinsteins/Savilles/Cyril Smiths of this world get away it then I thoroughly recommend listening to this fascinating radio 4 documentary - Jeremy Thorpe: The Silent Conspiracy

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04wz633

I thought it was very good but found the music in parts really annoying.

I thought it was really good - can't wait for the next episode. I remember the trial well - it all happened when I was a teenager and was a big thing on the news. Nice to see Hugh Grant playing someone other than Hugh Grant .
And I love Ben Wishaw he is so good in everything he does (although DD commented 'his husband needs to feed him some hearty soups and stew with dumplings' )

High Grant has got him just right hasn't he?

Excellent. A surfeit of good tv tonight. also watched parts 1 and 2 of "Patrick Melrose". Suberb performance by Benedict Cumberpatch and cast. Hugo Weaving does twisted malevolance so well he is making me feel ill!
Too late for Handmaids Tale now - that one will have to wait.

Outstanding. HG has indeed got Thorpe just right.

This was fantastic. I have never ready liked Hugh Grant, but he is sublime in this. The opening scene was fantastic: "Are you saying that you are a little bit... Musical?"

I remember surreptitiously reading reports in my parents’ Daily Express (a respected broadsheet in those days). I was too young to understand, and remember being confused by Norman’s evidence about JT coming into his bedroom with some Germoline. That scenario was reinacted with a tub of Vaseline in the first episode.

Yes the vaseline - or batchelors friend as he called it

I thought it was very well done. Like others, I kept thinking Paddington 2 for HG and King What'shisface for Bessell.

He really had no conscience, Thorpe.

Looking forward to the next 2 episodes.

Watched last night and really enjoyed it. I don't know many details and fighting the urge to read up as I think I may enjoy it more without that knowledge.

Good to see there's two more episodes to go, there's still a lot to tell in this story so a two-parter would have felt really rushed, I think.

Loved HG in this but then I've loved him since Four Weddings. He's quite an underrated actor and in this reminded me of a character he played years ago in a film called An Awfully Big Adventure.

I enjoyed it immensely. Cracking script from Russell T Davies ("bachelor's friend" indeed!) Hugh Grant was excellent. I did find it a little "bitty" in places, as the story of course doesn't proceed at an even pace. I also found some of the music a little distracting. But otherwise very good indeed.

I'm another one who's old enough to remember the trial, which was absolutely gobsmacking, and of course Peter Cook's famous piss-take of the judge that Gasp mentioned. The book is also a great read.

It was James Purefoy not Alex Jennings in A Dance to the Music of Time. Alex Jennings was good in The State to Come with Jason Isaacs a while back.

I don't know any of the RL story and haven't read the book but am really enjoying this.
Hugh Grant is surprisingly good.