Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Knubley Very light weight. So much missing to much of a cartoon. And the music is just wrong

philipryburn I normally like some good English Witt and banter, but couldn't even make it through one episode of this rubbish.

drednm Hugh Grant stars in this 3-part miniseries that looks at the political scandal that brought down Jeremy Thorpe in the mid 1970s. Thorpe lives a freewheeling life as a member of Parliament in 1960s London. He eagerly pursues young men on the QT for one-nighters while maintaining his work in Parliament. He's part of a small circle of old Oxford students who share like sexual tastes and who can keep secrets. When Thorpe meets young Norman (who works as a stable boy) he falls into a long-term, on-and-off-again relationship. The trouble is that Norman is a tad unstable and a big drama queen. Thorpe stupidly writes letters (it's the early 1960s), which Norman keeps. When Thorpe grows tired of Norman and tries to throw him over, the young man begins to make threats.Norman grows more and more unstable and wanders around the country, falling in and out of relationships. Every now and then he sends a threatening letter (blackmail really) to Thorpe. As Thorpe becomes politically more successful, it becomes more and more important to shut Norman up.Thorpe marries and has a son. He seems the very soul of a solid family man. Only a few know his secret past. Eventually Norman goes to the police and blurts out his accusations more than a decade after the fact. He starts babbling to anyone who will listen about how Thorpe used him. Desperate, Thorpe instigates a plan to kill Norman, but it gets botched and eventually the loose ends catch up with Thorpe when Norman files suit against him for attempted murder.Grant is absolutely superb as the devious Thorpe. Over the 3-parts of the series he runs the gamut from randy man about town to serious husband and father, and finally to grim middle-aged man facing a serious threat. Ben Whishaw is also excellent as the loony Norman whose life is almost hysterically out of control.Others in the cast that stand out are Alex Jennings as Peter, Patricia Hodge as Mrs. Thorpe, Adrian Scarborough as Carman, Michele Dotrice as Edna, Eve Myles as Gwen, and Monica Dolan as Thorpe's wife.Beautifully done with a sharp sense of British wit and charm. Directed by Stephen Frears.

Evil_Herbivore A Very English Scandal tells the story of an attempted murder of Norman Josiffe (later known as Norman Scott) by his ex-lover, Jeremy Thorpe MP. The story which only now, after Thorpe's death, can be told without the threat of him suing defamation of character. The strongest suit of the mini-series is the acting, particularly on the part of its two stars, Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw. Both give magnificent performances. Hugh Grant's Jeremy Thorpe is charming, highly intelligent, ruthless and manipulative. It is quite a contrast to the type of roles Grant usually gets cast in and it is really satisfying seeing him depart from his typecast. Ben Whishaw's Norman Josiffe is unstable, emotional and broken by the many hardships he has experienced.Minor characters as every bit as compelling as Jeremy and Norman. Thorpe's friend and fellow Member of Parliament, always willing to help his friend in times of need. An intelligent and very scrupulous young woman tasked with retrieving a lost suitcase. An eccentric lord, who lets badgers into his house and is deeply concerned with the anti-gay legislation. A Liberal MP willing to do anything to destroy Thorpe and take his place as the leader of the party. A man tasked with killing Norman, who is anything but professional. A pub owner, who gives Norman not only a job, but also friendship and support. It feels like each of these characters would make an interesting protagonist if a movie had been made about them instead of Thorpe and Josiffe.It is quite a pity that the writing as a whole is not as good as these minor characters. Although the plot is quite compelling and it is hard to make any accusations concerning the events as the story really happened, there are moments where the construction of the mini-series seems to be missing something. This is most visible when the plot focuses on Thorpe and leaves Norman's side out only to jump forward in time and find him in a completely different place and situation that we've last seen him. Explaining such changes by the means of short dialogue is truly unsatisfying. Another thing that needs to be mentioned is the music. Even though I usually don't pay much attention to the music - often I don't really notice it at all - in the mini-series it is used so cleverly that in a number of scenes I had to applaud the director's choices in the matter. It really feels like the music is an integral part of the production, sometimes underlining characters' emotions and sometimes acting almost as a kind of comic relief in this pretty sad story.In general, the mini-series is a solid piece of television telling an interesting story. The acting and the production are high quality, as can be expected from the BBC. The writing could have been better, as the plot often takes big leaps which are then only briefly mentioned in the dialogie. Sadly, this takes away some of the characters' believability and makes the pacing quite uneven.