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Amy Reviews Amazon: “A Very English Scandal”
Amazon Video is not merely a tool to watch Hollywood’s best; it is perhaps the best way of getting content with good writing, good acting, and good production values. “A Very English Scandal” is a three hour miniseries that does not disappoint on that front.
The three episode series is based on the “novelized true story” of Jeremy Thorpe, a mid-century Liberal Member of Parliament, and the circumstances that led to his trial for conspiracy to murder his alleged lover Norman Scott. The show is probably the most true “based on a real story” story one is likely to ever see, as while Mr. Thorpe has since passed on, his estate has threatened libel suits for previous retellings of the events. As such, while the exact dialogue and character attitudes may not be what actually happened, they are based on witness testimony in court.
The plot, it goeth thusly: Jeremy Thorpe was visiting one of his friends in the early 60s when he met a young stable groom named Norman Josiffe. Jeremy offered his card to Norman to come visit, and a year later Norman came looking for him. Jeremy seduced Norman, put him up in a flat as a “kept man,” wrote him love letters on Parliament stationary, and tried to get him a permanent job. Jeremy refused to get him a promised National Insurance benefits card, though. The two separated, and appeared to go their separate ways. Jeremy increased his power in the Liberal Party, getting married and having a child, while Norman changed his name to Norman Scott and drifted through a series of short-term jobs, a doomed marriage, and various friends trying to help him out. And periodically he would appear in Jeremy Thorpe’s life, demanding his promised National Insurance card.
Obviously, a homosexual sex scandal would not be good for Thorpe’s political career, so he would use friends to try to pay Scott off and eventually began to talk about having Scott killed to shut him up permanently. This is perhaps the most tragi-comic part of the whole story, as Thorpe’s friends delay and delay and by the late 70s finally promise that they know people who could do it quietly and professionally, but end up contacting the most idiotic string of characters. One finally agrees to do it, but is so incompetent that he merely kills Scott’s dog. He goes to prison, and when he gets out, he tells the papers his story of being a hired hitman. This prompts a police investigation, and Thorpe becomes the first MP charged for conspiracy to commit murder and inciting murder. He lucks out with a judge so blatantly prejudiced against Scott that it’s mocked for years later:
The show as a piece of media is top notch. Hugh Grant as Jeremy Thorpe and Ben Whishaw as Norman Scott give fantastic performances that keep both men flawed but relatable. Grant’s Thorpe isn’t particularly cruel or hateful; he’s just a man trying to hide a past mistake. Whishaw’s Scott is an intriguing mix of vulnerability and strength. (As an aside, the real Norman Scott disagreed with the performance, saying it made him look too weak.) Production values are great, giving a real feel for the times.
For being a story nominally about a gay sex scandal from a time when sodomy was illegal, it does have a very modern, #metoo type feel. Swap Norman Scott for Norma, and the story feels like it could play out the same. The powerful man preying about a young inexperienced person from a broken home, the unkept promises, the victim coming forward to denounce the powerful man, and even the split between those who believe the victim and those who insist that a bastion of the Liberal Party would never do such a thing.
Published in Entertainment
I still haven’t subscribed to any of the streaming services. New stuff would be nice, but I’d like to be able to get classic movies too.
Do the British do any of these shows badly?
Not that I’ve seen.
Amazon Prime Video is free with Amazon Prime, which is worth having for other reasons.
Also, it’s traditional on this sort of thread for someone to say that “liberal” in Europe means conservative. As such, I’d like to preempt the comment and note that this took place in Britain, not Europe. The Liberal Party that, under Churchill and Lloyd George, shredded the Constitution (essentially abolishing one chamber of the legislature), ended gun and other civil rights, implemented punitive income and inheritance taxes, etc etc etc was not a party of the right.
Before the great Joseph Chamberlain led the Liberal Unionists out of the party, there were still Burkean Liberals, but not in Jeremy Thorpe’s lifetime. Thorpe opposed coalition with the Conservative Party after the ‘74 election despite its winning a plurality of the seats, setting up what would become the lib-lab pact under his successor, who would go on to become the left side of a successor pact between the more moderate socialists of the Labor Party and the Liberals when the former split off from their parent party to become the Social Democratic Party.
I would point out that we do get short scenes of Thorpe doing his job in the Commons, where he is speaking out on behalf of the Common Market and other leftist ideas.
Thanks for the review, @amyschley. I’ll have to check this out and see how it comports with my recollection of the matter from the first time around (the real one). I do remember that, prior to the “troubles,” he was one of Parliament’s brightest stars, and was widely expected to become Prime Minister.
I don’t know if it’s covered in the series, but by the time he died of complications from Parkinson’s Disease in 2014, Thorpe had rehabilitated himself in the eyes of his peers and his countrymen, largely due to his complete withdrawal from public life after the scandal and his pursuit, along with his wife Marion, of good works among the poor. His funeral was held at Westminster, and was attended by several Liberal Party leaders and Members of Parliament. In 2009, a bronze bust of Jeremy Thorpe was added to the collection of those of parliamentary leaders on display in Portcullis House, Westminster.
Over the years I have become persuaded that the British drama schools are qualitatively better than those in any other nation. Even second-string actors from Britain handle their craft better, as a rule, than first-string actors from the States or anywhere else.
My two cents: I watched about 30 minutes of the first one and found Jeremy Thorpe to be such an insidious, vile and detestable oaf, a self-preening character, I could not watch it. He reminded me a lot of that self-reverential blowhard John Kerry. Not very bright and completely unaware of it.
In other words, a politician.
A politician of a certain type.
Unfortunately, the David Walliams/Matt Lucas team behind the “Little Britain” series seems to have forced a purge at YouTube of almost all of the fan uploads from over the years, so this is the best instance I can find of what I now realize — thanks to the OP — must have been a Thorpe-inspired running gag:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvLI_S7vN_8
It was amusing to see Hugh Grant channelling his inner Edward Fox.
He’s definitely not a nice man. That being said, there are moments in the last episode about the trial where Thorpe is looking back on the relationship and it does seem clear that he had genuine affection for Scott. He also seems to have genuine love of his wives, possibly to his own surprise. He’s mostly evil, but not completely.
One of the funniest parts of the miniseries was the “where are they now” comments at the end. Peter Cook’s sketch of the biased judge in “A Very English Scandal” is essential viewing.
Yeah, the “Norman Scott never received his National Insurance card” bit really sums up how tragically farcical the whole thing was.
I prefer not to watch men kissing.
I could not watch much. The “we must shove it in your face” homosexuality made me want to take a shower.
I just look away. I watched the first episode (alone, since my husband says he’s sick of this stuff in every show now) and the story and acting is quite entertaining.
I would guess that about 75% of what we watch now are Brit, Irish, Australian and Canadian shows. The worst of theirs is better than the best of ours, for the most part. Not just the acting, but the dialogue and general production values are better also.
And it’s only in the first episode. A story about trying to cover up a gay love affair is going to have a gay love affair. And the physical affection shown is quite tame as compared to the heterosexual physicality one can get away with in a PG13 film.
The second episode is about the murder conspiracy, with the last about the trial.
But you’re de facto endorsing it by giving it ratings.
I am endorsing the quality of the production. If it were lousy I would turn it off. And it is a true story – it happened. That is the fascination, not a couple of scenes with men kissing.
And, just to be clear, a story about how terrible a liberal politician was. For the life of me, I can’t think of what conservative cause is harmed by liberals attacking liberal gay politicians. If you find it unpleasant to watch, that makes sense. I do not understand why you’d be averse to others watching.
A far better recent Netflix series: Sex Education.