The John Profumo scandal that brought down Harold MacMillan's Conservative party in the 60s, it was time for a Liberal Party Leader to launch an equally juicy tabloid-crazy trial nearly 20 years later. Jeremy Thorpe, one of the brightest lights of the Liberal party, was tried for conspiracy for hiring a team to kill a man with whom he had had a clandestine affair with, during the early 60s--years when "buggery" was considered a crime in England. Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, The Queen) is the stylish director of this three-part series which is headed by Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, as Thorpe and his lover, Norman Scott. The series is a heady brew of a political scandal, a troubled young man whose homosexuality was an affront to the era in general and of the upper British class represented by Thorpe, as well as the judge who presided over the trial.
I read previous reviews of this mini-series and I was appalled at the condescension handed to Hugh Grant. Perhaps it is because of his great success in the romantic comedy genre, which he has practically kept alive for the past 25 years. His mastery there shouldn't be in doubt--his outstanding work speaks for itself. But like many other fine British actors, Hugh Grant excelled in a wide variety of films. While Meryl Streep was over the top as Florence Foster Jenkins, Grant delivered a finely nuanced performance as her protective "husband", St. Clair Bayfield. All the way back to the beginning of his career, there was Maurice, which I think signaled the arrival of a really good film actor. He's hilarious as the neurasthenic Chopin in the little-seen Impromptu. He can be annoyingly reticent, as his Mr.Darcy proves in Sense & Sensibility. But his iis a singular talent that has lasted for decades. Grant brings an upper-class glamor to the part of Jeremy Thorpe, which the original didn't much possess. His power as a politician is to intimidate and Grant gives us this preening and arrogant man who abuses his power, and show that when he's thwarted, he can turn very dangerous. You believe he wants to eradicate all traces of his homosexual past. He is icy cold in his determination and refusal to buckle under the pressure he's facing. Now past his rom-com heyday, Grant is deepening his skills as a first-rate character actor, and this is good news because as a British actor, he will be given more and more parts to show us his superb capabilities.
Ben Whishaw is fantastic as Norman Scott, a young man who can't seem to figure out what to do with his life. But Scott is not the loser here. He gets his day in court and Whishaw really delivers. The rest of the cast is first-rate. There is a lot of dark humor here, and Frears finds it in a cracking script by Russel T Davies (Dr. Who, Torchwood, Queer as Folk) and John Preston, who wrote the book on which this series is based.
The court scenes are handled extremely well. Thorpe's lawyer decides not to put him on the stand, fearing he wouldn't come off very well. The judge who presided over the case was clearly against Norman Scott, whom he described as a "fraud, a sponger, a whiner and a parasite." Betraying his class affiliations in his outrageous summation, the judge concluded by saying, "but of course, he could still be telling the truth."
This is a winning mini-series that hold attention throughout. In a period when TV is easily outstripping anything you can see at the multiplex, A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL holds it own.
I read previous reviews of this mini-series and I was appalled at the condescension handed to Hugh Grant. Perhaps it is because of his great success in the romantic comedy genre, which he has practically kept alive for the past 25 years. His mastery there shouldn't be in doubt--his outstanding work speaks for itself. But like many other fine British actors, Hugh Grant excelled in a wide variety of films. While Meryl Streep was over the top as Florence Foster Jenkins, Grant delivered a finely nuanced performance as her protective "husband", St. Clair Bayfield. All the way back to the beginning of his career, there was Maurice, which I think signaled the arrival of a really good film actor. He's hilarious as the neurasthenic Chopin in the little-seen Impromptu. He can be annoyingly reticent, as his Mr.Darcy proves in Sense & Sensibility. But his iis a singular talent that has lasted for decades. Grant brings an upper-class glamor to the part of Jeremy Thorpe, which the original didn't much possess. His power as a politician is to intimidate and Grant gives us this preening and arrogant man who abuses his power, and show that when he's thwarted, he can turn very dangerous. You believe he wants to eradicate all traces of his homosexual past. He is icy cold in his determination and refusal to buckle under the pressure he's facing. Now past his rom-com heyday, Grant is deepening his skills as a first-rate character actor, and this is good news because as a British actor, he will be given more and more parts to show us his superb capabilities.
Ben Whishaw is fantastic as Norman Scott, a young man who can't seem to figure out what to do with his life. But Scott is not the loser here. He gets his day in court and Whishaw really delivers. The rest of the cast is first-rate. There is a lot of dark humor here, and Frears finds it in a cracking script by Russel T Davies (Dr. Who, Torchwood, Queer as Folk) and John Preston, who wrote the book on which this series is based.
The court scenes are handled extremely well. Thorpe's lawyer decides not to put him on the stand, fearing he wouldn't come off very well. The judge who presided over the case was clearly against Norman Scott, whom he described as a "fraud, a sponger, a whiner and a parasite." Betraying his class affiliations in his outrageous summation, the judge concluded by saying, "but of course, he could still be telling the truth."
This is a winning mini-series that hold attention throughout. In a period when TV is easily outstripping anything you can see at the multiplex, A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL holds it own.