A very English Scandal

I didn't notice the music at all. I was a teenager at the time I think and it took me a long time to believe that it was all true. The whole shooting thing seemed very far fetched at the time.

The only gay couple I knew in those days were a pair of theatrical agents Diana Dors was one of their clients and I'm sure many people must have known about them but they never seemed to have any problems.

I agree about the jolly music. It reminded me of the drama about Mary Whitehouse starring Julie Walters. It was appropriate for that but I don't think it is at all appropriate in this case.

I also remember having to answer some awkward questions from our elder children during the time of the trial.

I stick to my view that this was not the serious work it could and should have been. I was put off by the music for a start, and though I certainly can't fault the acting - Ben Wishaw is never anything but marvellous - having lived through the actual events, I just felt it was more like a spoof than a proper piece of drama.

Yes NanKate he is loving his new career and yes he gets between £120 & £200 per day .

Sorry it was Day6. - mis read that name - thanks for correcting me.

Sorry Welshwife I don't think I posted a link. Did I???

Not John Prescott, Welshwife, John Preston!

I think that a lot of meetings in public loos in places like Hampstead Heath took place.

I would imagine that a bit of research about what goes on would be easy to find. The article Varian gave the link to mentions the production being based on a book written by John Prescott.

Has anyone seen the Peter Cook spoof of the judge in the trial? I don't know how to post links but suggest you look for it on YouTube. He's so good at portraying those upper class types.

It certainly isn't funny bestwishes, it is a chilling portrayal of the way people of a certain class used and abused people of another. I think it is astonishing just how like Jeremy Thorpe Hugh Grant looks!

Wasn’t Chris Smith the first MP to come out ?

Good point,
Anniebach.

We will never know what Jeremy Thorpe would have been like had the law been different and he had been comfortable with his homosexuality. He might still have been predatory, but he might simply have found himself a nice man and settled down. He didn’t have that option if he wanted to succeed in politics.

To me, the major problem was the law before it was changed. So far, I don’t think that’s been stressed enough.

How does Russell Davies know what took place in private between two men ? Accepting Scott’s word or from his own personal experience

Brilliant acting and a well thought out drama and no not at all funny Bestwishes, some may interpret it that way but it is far far from funny it s heartbreaking looking at the grooming and manipulation of vulnerable people by the older richer men and unfortunately still goes on although there was in those days the edition of the sheer ignorance and fear of ‘gays’ who had no voice or ability of speaking out but this young Norman was underneath his vulnerability Determined he wasn’t going to let it go
I remember the scandal but never saw it from the young mans focus I at the time thought it was all about Jeremy Thorpe being disliked because he was gay ( I was trying to bring three children up alone during this period so probably didn’t have time to work it all out)

the same men are still there Varian they just cover their tracks better or get Ms May to "lose" the details of their crimes .The Elite will always stick together on these matters ,after all who really cares whay happens to young men and women like Norman Scott ?

Yes, well said varian, and I think that smug superiority is portrayed extremely well in this period piece drama. I imagine that upper echelon of self-centred but superficially charming people still exists in most corridors of power and private London clubs.

I think Hugh Grant is very convincing in this role. I heard him say in an interview that JT reminded him of the type of men his parents would invite to dinner parties when he was a child - superficially charming, utterly selfish, with a strong sense of entitlement- they were the products of Eton and other similar boys-only schools for the wealthy and priviledged.

I think the homosexual practices they had often been subjected to and learnt in these intsitutions may well have contributed to them becoming bisexual, when they might otherwise not have been. The attitudes they seemed to have towards their sexual conquests, male or female, was pretty despicable. It was about satisfying their own sexual appetites and exercising power over the less priviledged.

These were men of their time and it could be that the illegality of sexual activity between men at that time was part of the allure. Although they may have had some redeeming qualities, they were absolutely ruthless in protecting their own interests and totally lacking in empathy towards others.

I think it's a story very well told and acted and Hugh Grant does a good job. I found the way he almost groomed the innocent Norman quite chilling. The predatory nature of the older gay man spotting and sensing another sexual encounter was - well, a bit like prowling wolf licking his lips. There was no romancing - once the vulnerable young man arrived Thorpe was straight into Norman's bedroom with a towel and jar of Vaseline!

It's an eye-opener to a different world. I was too young to appreciate Thorpe's crimes at the time. He was very much a smooth user of people.

I in agreement with this review in the Independent. It covers everything I thought really!

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/a-very-english-scandal-bbc-one-hugh-grant-jeremy-thorpe-ben-whishaw-a8358056.html

In the course of a by-election campaign, I shook hands with JT and, when the trial took place, I wondered if I'd remembered to wash my hands that day.

MawBroon , indeed you have reason!

While giving evidence at Ward's trial, Rice-Davies made a famous riposte. When James Burge, the defence counsel, pointed out that Lord Astor denied an affair or having even met her, she replied, "Well (giggle) he would, wouldn’t he?"

MRD was a successful sort of person with no nonsense about her. Is social class so psychologically entrenched now as it was then? Is there a shady side to our ruling elites?

(Re the Profumo scandal, Welshwife.)

We switched it off shortly after the Vaseline appeared.

It’s not the sexuality but the predatory nature especially of men in positions of power.
No coincidence that they associated with the likes of paedophiles Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile.
AIBU to think that the people who aspire to run our country should have a moral compass?

When you think what sort of issues gay men struggled with before the homosexual reform legislation in about 67 life must have been very difficult. Even after the legislation was passed it took a long time for people to be more accepting. All the stress those gay man who were looking for partners were put through. Mind you he was a rather unpleasant man.
There was an older farmer on Country file who had eventually come out as gay and found a partner.

I haven’t watched it, mainly because I remember it all too well, I’m surprised that they managed to make it funny though. It didn’t seem very funny at the time.
I might just have to watch it....