A Very English Scandal

The shocking true story of the first British politician to stand trial for murder. Now a major BBC series starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw. Thorpe was charismatic and sympathetic. He also had an extraordinary knack for remembering people’s names and for making them feel their problems were especially close to his heart. With his arms thrown wide and an enormous grin on his face, he would bear down on his would-be constituents as though seeing them had just fulfilled his wildest dreams. Few were able to resist. Behind oak-panelled doors in the House of Commons, men with cut-glass accents and gold signet rings are conspiring to murder. It's the late 1960s and homosexuality has only just been legalised, and Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal party, has a secret he's desperate to hide. As long as Norman Scott, his beautiful, unstable lover is around, Thorpe's brilliant career is at risk. With the help of his fellow politicians, Thorpe schemes, deceives, embezzles - until he can see only one way to silence Scott for good. The trial of Jeremy Thorpe changed our society forever: it was the moment the British public discovered the truth about its political class. Illuminating the darkest secrets of the Establishment, the Thorpe affair revealed such breath-taking deceit and corruption in an entire section of British society that, at the time, hardly anyone dared believe it could be true. A Very English Scandal is an eye-opening tale of how the powerful protect their own, and an extraordinary insight into the forces that shaped modern Britain. ‘A gripping account of 'the only murder plot ever - allegedly - hatched in the House of Commons’ - The Sunday Telegraph