Hugh Grant returns to British television after several decades working primarily on rom-com films. Now he is older, greyer and the looks are fading he plays the real life politician Jeremy Thorpe.
In 1979 the Jeremy Thorpe attempted murder trial gripped the nation. I remember the events, but I was a kid then so I did not quite grasp the salaciousness of the scandal.
Thorpe was the young, rising politician in the Liberal Party which was at the time just a small rump in the House of Commons. The unmarried Thorpe had a liaison with a farm hand which went back to 1961.
Ben Whishaw plays Norman Scott, the young farm hand. He is neurotic, dim and briefly went on to become a male model. Scott attempts to blackmail Thorpe. Peter Bessell (Alex Jennings) is the politician used by Thorpe to stave off Scott's threats to bring ruin on Thorpe who is now looking to find a bride so he could hopefully bolster the Liberal's fortunes in the opinion polls.
The first episode had a mainly lighthearted tone and was rather zippy. Russell T Davies knows from his Doctor Who days to keep things economical and go for the absurd. It is not long before Thorpe enters Scott's bedroom with a tub of Vaseline and asks him to hop on to all fours. Soon Scott becomes trouble especially as he wants a copy of his National Insurance card but Thorpe did himself no favours with the risque letters he wrote.
A promising first episode but for some of the early scenes, Grant looked rather old for someone who was at one point the youngest party leader since Pitt the Younger!
