A Very English Scandal (TV Mini Series)

Episode #1.1 (2018)

Alex Jennings: Peter Bessell

Quotes 

• Jeremy Thorpe : What's that secretary of yours like? Elizabeth. Any good?

  Peter Bessell : Oh yes. Particularly in bed.

  Jeremy Thorpe : Pedro! I adore you. You and your monstrous appetites! Weren't you a lay preacher? Well, obviously you were, literally.

  Peter Bessell : Call it a hobby. Some people play golf; I like screwing.

• [Jeremy Thorpe and Peter Bessell are speaking in 1965 before "gay" had become almost exclusively a synonym for homosexual, and when homosexuality was still a crime] 

  Peter Bessell : Between the two of us, when I was young, I was so desperate, I'd go looking on the spear side.

  Jeremy Thorpe : [long pause, then Jeremy Thorpe grins]  Are you telling me... that you... were usable?

  Peter Bessell : I'm a little bit so, yes. If that's not too shocking.

  Jeremy Thorpe : Peter Pedro Bessell von Bessellbach! Well, out of anyone in this room, I'm probably the least shocked of all, if you understand my meaning.

  Peter Bessell : I think so.

  Jeremy Thorpe : It's hardly a great surprise, now is it?

  Peter Bessell : I... suppose not.

  Jeremy Thorpe : What would you say you are, vis-a-vis men and women? What are you? 50-50?

  Peter Bessell : More like 80-20. I mean, 80% for the ladies.

  Jeremy Thorpe : Yeah. Yes, I call myself 80%, but... 80%... gay.

  Peter Bessell : Gosh, I'm not sure that word's ever been said within these walls before. Not in that context. My wife insists that gay means happy.

  Jeremy Thorpe : I think she's absolutely right. And I intend to be very happy, very many times in my life. And very much so with him.

  [Jeremy Thorpe points to someone on the other side of the room] 

  Peter Bessell : Careful now. Keep it discreet. I'm not sure any boy's worth ending up in prison for.

• [Norman Scott is begging Jeremy Thorpe for a new identity and National Insurance card, and has told Jeremy's wife that he was Jeremy's lover. Who else might he tell if he doesn't get his own way?] 

  Peter Bessell : What can we do?

  Jeremy Thorpe : We get rid of him.

  Peter Bessell : How?

  Jeremy Thorpe : We could scare him. My friend David, he knows some men.

  Peter Bessell : What? To rough him up, do you mean? I'm not sure that would work.

  Jeremy Thorpe : Norman? He'd be terrified. The creature's pathetic.

  Peter Bessell : I'm not sure. It's an easy mistake to make. He's effeminate and therefore we think he's weak, but that man sits in pubs and clubs and houses and hotels, telling all the world about his homosexuality out loud, all day long. It doesn't matter who's listening - priests or housewives or landlords or anyone. He tells the truth and he doesn't care. No-one else does that, Jeremy. No-one. Certainly not us. In this whole land, there is Norman and Norman alone.

  Jeremy Thorpe : Well, in that case, there is only one thing we can do. Kill him.

  Peter Bessell : Oh, if only we could...

  Jeremy Thorpe : No, I mean it. We kill him. Have him killed.

  Peter Bessell : Don't be ridiculous.

  Jeremy Thorpe : He will destroy me and the party and my marriage. What if the next person he talks to is a journalist?

  Peter Bessell : For God's sake, Jeremy, we're Members of Parliament. We can't sit here and discuss murder.

  Jeremy Thorpe : No worse than shooting a sick dog.

  Peter Bessell : It's a damn sight worse.

  Jeremy Thorpe : I really don't care. I don't care if we shoot him or we strangle him or we poison him or we bludgeon him or we tie him up in a sack and drop it in the Thames. There is only one way for us to survive. Norman Scott has got to die. So, how?