A very English Scandal

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Mrs Thorpe was the Countess of Harwood, possibly after her first marriage to a womaniser she found security and a deep friendship with Thorpe, she certaintly stuck with him untill her death.

I think Mrs T2 was worldly and experienced enough to find a way of accepting her husband's situation and working with, or around, it.

Their political life was over after this case, bit probably that wasn't a bad thing, they probably continued with their comfortable life in every other aspect.

I also got the impression (only from the dramatisation) that there was a great deal of affection (love) between the two of them.

Am settling down on this drizzly morning to watch the Panorama special.

Mrs T was terribly well connected and I’m sure had views of the value and use of the ‘little’ people.

Mrs T 2 was aware of her husbands homosexual life when they married. I don't suppose being 'forgiving' was the issue, more like ensuring their comfortable life wasn't disrupted. I don't suggest they didn't love each other, I'm sure they did.

Here's an interview with Hugh Grant talking about the series:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ejnU-joSes

Well the young man wasn’t ‘one of us’ was he? So that’s all right then.

We originally switched it off when the Vaseline came out but after reading this thread, decided to give it another go. I'm pleased that we did so thank you gransnetters. It was so well acted and the music was fine. Wasn't Mrs Thorpe no.2 a remarkable lady? I turned to my husband and warned him that if he acquires a young man and then tries to kill him, I will not be so forgiving!

It was great acting and a gripping drama- very well done. You wonder who else was involved in the cover up and I expect it happens today, but hopefully to a lesser extent.

It makes you wonder if this sort of criminal behaviour was even more widespread and whether there were people who just turned a blind eye

........and still are, nothing has changed unfortunately, humans learn nothing even when we think it’s all gone away

Cyril Smith.....shudder.

In the documentary, as well as Cyril Smith Clement Freud was also mentioned in passing. He had apparently shared an office with Smith. After his death, a woman in her 70s accused Freud of grooming and assaulting her when she was staying at his house when her parents split up. Another, anonymous, woman also claimed that he had abused her from the age of 10. Freud's wife apologised for his behaviour so presumably she accepted that it had happened.

It makes you wonder if this sort of criminal behaviour was even more widespread and whether there were people who just turned a blind eye.

I’ve now watched the third episode. The best tv drama in a while. I rather liked the music. I wonder if it was written by the same person who composed the music for Last Tango.

Thanks Grannyknot

Have now watched the third episode, what brilliant acting all round.
At least Norman had his say in court, and am sure many people (even at the time) believed him.

Gosh I think it was a total conspiracy and listening to a man on the news ITN were even involved in covering up
But the police have found the shooter said there’s nothing new to offer and have closed the case That’s that then

Im about to watch last night's episode on catch up. The acting is brilliant, no weak links and Hugh Grant I excellent.

I saw Lord David Steel interviewed on Ch 4. news earlier. He affected to have known nothing about JT's behaviour, claimed that the not guilty finding means we'll never know and said JT was asked to step down because he'd taken money from the LibDem accounts.
It reminded me of Steel's response to the allegations against Cyril Smith. His comment was something like, CS has only been accused of smacking a few bottoms.

The information about the involvement of Special Branch, MI5 and police being told it wasn't in the national interest to pursue an investigation (when NS made his first allegations) are a mirror image of what happened with the various Smith investigations.

I tend towards the cock up rather than conspiracy approach to files being lost but - isn't it odd that the files relating to paedophiles in high places were lost? I'm not suggesting Thorpe was a padeophile but he was certainly an exploitative older man who behaved badly towards a young man who had mental health problems, which must have been obvious to Thrope from the start.