A very English Scandal

Marion Stein, Mrs Thorpe, came from a wealthy cultured Jewish family that had to flee Vienna ahead of its occupation by the Nazi. Does that make her terribly well connected and I’m sure had views of the value and use of the ‘little’ people. I am not sure it does.

In this country the family again mixed in musical circles, Benjamin Britten was a close family friend. She herself was a professional piano soloist. She met Lord Harewood, when he came into her world through his interests in music rather than her being part of his more aristocratic and 'Society' life.

The Daily Telegraph published and extensive obituary that makes interesting reading.www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10683525/Marion-Thorpe-obituary.html

If she was aristocracy she probably had a more relaxed attitude to sex than the general public at the time.

I sort of thought, wrongly obviously, that most people knew about Marion Stein. I’ve known about her most of my life.

Her father was Benjamin Britten's publisher and she did indeed more or less grow up with Britten She was 12 when they first met. (For those who don’t know, Britten lived with the singer Peter Pears for the best part of forty years, so she knew about gay people.) She met Lord Harewood, an opera fan, at Britten and Pears’ Aldeburgh Festival. She ran the Leeds Piano competition, which used to be a very important international music event - maybe still is. Thorpe was also very keen on classical music, and a good violinist.

The only time I remember seeing Jeremy Thorpe was at the Aldeburgh Festival with Marion, a year after he was acquitted.

Oh, sorry. I’ve repeated a lot of stuff that was in that obituary, so it will seem a bit repetitious to anyone reading both.

Last night on BBC News, David Steel was still in denial about what had happened, getting very blustery about Cyril Smith. While I appreciate that the allegations are not all proven, Steel was very dismissive of the people who had made them, describing them as scurrilous. He even went so far as to say that nobody in the party/parliament knew anything of the Thorpe allegations; hmm, I always think that the HoC must be riven with gossip and rumour, rather like the Tudor court. Saddened me as I had always quite liked him. Oh well.

Great series. Hugh Grant can certainly act. Loved all the quirkiness but the message was still got across load and clear. Old Boys Club!

Yes, discovering Hugh Grant can act was probably the greatest revelation in this series.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.....some darn good acting ....music was very fitting...

Thought this was the best programme I have seen in a long time. Also enjoyed, if that’s the word, the Tom Mangold documentary. Great to watch an informative programme where they don’t keep going over the same stuff as nowadays the documentary makers seem to think their audience will have the attention span of a gnat.

Great series. Ben Wishaw is one of my favourite actors. I always found Jeremy Thorpe very creepy and furtive looking. I always tried to stop myself from judging a book by its cover though.

Gill, what is it with David Steele ? Is he a total innocent, he simply can be. Is he duplicitous or is he amxious to protect his own reputation? I don’t know anyone else who says we should be careful what we say about Cyril because nothing is proved and the inquiry isn’t yet completed.
The police officers involved are consistent in saying they believed the young men, sent the papers to the DPP but were visited by special branch and Mi5/ who told them they’d signed the official secrets act, never to speak of this. The same pattern was repeated in different police areas. Just as with Thorpe , a cover up.

David Steele.
Me thinks he doth protest too much

Yes!

As for Hugh Grant acting, having seen him giving very short shrift to someone who was sending him up some years ago, imo the roles he played in those rom coms was also acting. Not the real HG at all!

Great drama. Fantastic to see the two actors Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw who were both great. Possibly a bit light hearted but how else could you treat a story that if you think about it exposed MPs, the intelligence services and the police as unprincipled, biased and corrupt.

Tue 05-Jun-18 10:55:59
I'm glad someone has posted some facts about Marion Stein because I was going to post something similar.
It is to her credit that, after enduring her first husband's infidelity, she stayed with Jeremy Thorpe despite all and cared for him until his death.

No maryeliza, she married into the aristocracy, or one could argue, the Royal Family as her first MIL was Princess Mary - she was in fact from a Jewish family which fled from Hitler in 1938.

sorry, meant to mention M0nica and Grandma70s who have posted about Marion Stein.

and Anniebach

I knew nothing of the 2nd Mrs Thorpe and I've found the information here very interesting. I know it was a drama but, I did feel there was real affection and warmth between Marion and Jeremy.
I'm in no way defending his lies, manipulation etc but this drama did have me reflecting on whether it could have been different twenty years later. Not the threats to kill of course, just the fact they'd had an affair. I'd have disapproved of the power imbalance to be sure but not of homosexuality.

I wonder if it was written by the same person who composed the music for Last Tango

I thought exactly the same thing Iam64

What a cracking drama. I really enjoyed it. I was too young or too busy to pay much notice to the Thorpe scandal at the time and although I was aware of it I didn't appreciate all it's twists and turns.

Plaudits to the whole cast from me. Hugh Grant's Thorpe was totally convincing and he portrayed him brilliantly, displaying all his mannerisms. I too was surprised to see how Michele Dotrice had aged - she will forever be Frank Spencer's wife - but what a supportive and lovely woman she portrayed.

Poor Norman Scott. I watched the documentary after the last episode and the real Norman seemed genuinely nice, and sensitive. What a miscarriage of justice he suffered. I was astonished by the police cover up, and by the totally unfair way in which the judge summed up the trial before sending away the jury to decide Thorpe's fate. What huge lengths people with power went to in order to allow Thorpe to wriggle free.

Bessel came across as a thoroughly shifty man, both in the drama and the documentary.

I wonder, with the miscarriage of justice coming to light, if Norman Scott is likely to be compensated?

Day 6, I don’t know enough about Thorpe to know if the police did cover it up. Mi5 and special branch were mentioned. They covered up the Cyril Smith allegations and the police attempt to prosecute him was overruled as “not in the public interests”. I wonder if the same happened here.
It’s long been rumoured/alleged that it suited some to have MPs in debt to them when particular issues were under discussion

Why is it surprising to discover that Hugh Grant can act? Just because he was typecast for some time after Four Weddings doesn't mean that he wasn't acting; it's what casting directors do.

And why shouldn't Michele Doctrine look her age (69)? And perhaps she was made up to look especially motherly.

I was only surprised because in my head Michele Dotrice only had one role. I see her face in Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em, the way she looked back in the '70s. It was not a criticism of ageing. I was surprised when I realised who the actress was, that's all. We all do it, grow old, if we are lucky. I don't look like I did 40 years ago either! Sadly.

Iam64, did you see the documentary afterwards? The chap who originally supplied the gun, who was in on the Scott murder plot but passed on the job to someone else (iirc) was asked at the time of the scandal to go to a police station of his choosing, at a time convenient to him, to sign another statement, one created by the police. His original statement must have implicated Thorpe in some way. The new one, composed by the police, let the gun seller off the hook, so he avoided any sort of prosecution. It cleared him of any involvement but wiped JT off the record too.

That was blatantly corrupt.

Many senior officers were exposed when interviewed as doing a poor job or being guided by assumptions rather than facts.

The Tom Mangold documentary was supposedly destroyed. It exposed so much suspicious activity at the time. BBC bosses also pulling strings (or having their strings pulled) by not running it?? Thankfully Mangold kept a copy. I was shocked and angry on Scott's behalf.

Just seen the last episode. Thought it was very clever drama that made you sympathise with both sides or at least understand why it happened.
Can't get the theme tune out of my head.