The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal (2018 TV Movie) User Reviews

A Very English Scandal

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 4 June 2018]

Tweet from the BBC News Press Team on June 04 2018: staggering 1.6 million people tuned into @BBCPanorama's The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal last night - the highest ever audience for @BBCFour since 2011.

In fact the rating is higher than what a Panorama documentary normally gets on BBC1. It shows the fascination of the British public on the Jeremy Thorpe affair reignited by the broadcasting of the drama; A Very English Scandal.

The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal was an updated documentary that was originally due to be broadcast in May 1979. So convinced the press were that Thorpe would be found guilty at his trial for conspiracy to murder that in depth articles were already written and television programs were already made, just waiting for the guilty verdict to come in.

However the jury delivered a not guilty verdict and this Panorama could not be shown unless it was edited. Jeremy Thorpe never admitted to being a homosexual. As Thorpe died in 2014, the BBC cannot now be sued for libel.

Presenter Tom Mangold went through the details of Thorpe/Scott affair. How as soon as Thorpe got elected as a MP, the security services probed into any hidden skeletons. Mangold spoke to many of the main players such as Peter Bessell, Thorpe's confidant who gave evidence for the prosecution. A lot of what is shown is mirrored in the BBC drama A Very English Scandal. There is a hint that the Establishment in the early 1960s wanted to protect Thorpe as it was already reeling from incidents such as the Profumo affair.

This documentary was a good companion piece to the drama, it confirms that what we saw was not something far fetched but it was all true.

Truth will out

[Lejink · 8/10 · 3 July 2018]

I was one of those who immediately switched channels, as prompted by the BBC continuity announcer, the minute the three part drama "A Very English Scandal" ended, to watch this shelved "Panorama" special from 1978, expected and scheduled to be aired the day of the original verdict in the actual Jeremy Thorpe trial. To the BBC reporting team here and indeed most of the public at large, it seemed a foregone conclusion that the ex-Liberal Party leader would be found guilty with his confederates of the attempted murder of his former lover Norman Scott. However, even in the hallowed British justice system, it appears, rather like the later trial in America of a well-known football star, the seemingly guilty can walk free.

And there's little doubt, going by the content here, that Thorpe was guilty of organising the botched hit on Scott. Motive and opportunity were clearly outlined with revealing interviews with almost every party to the plot, Thorpe excepted of course. The programme also demonstrated that the preceding dramatisation starring Hugh Grant as Thorpe didn't stray too far from the likely facts, although it did show Norman Scott to be a more robust character than the way Ben Whishaw portrayed him.

This hour long documentary, updated by its original presenter 40 years on and featuring yet more new revelations only further confirming the almost certainly correct presumption of guilt of the accused, was fascinating to watch, the better for its concentration on the known background events and was even more compelling than the TV drama.

The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal

[a_baron · 9/10 · 14 October 2018]

This documentary was made in 1979, and was to be released in the wake of the conviction of Jeremy Thorpe. Fortunately for him, the jury followed the directions of the judge to acquit, although it was of course the end of his political career, and "The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal" was locked away in the BBC's vault only to be dug out by Tom Mangold, one of the original team, four decades on.

Most of the facts herein are known to those who followed the legal proceedings, the actual trial, or who have seen the recent, excellent dramatisation starring Hugh Grant, but there are some new revelations, and a short interview with the man who caused all this, Norman Scott.

Was Thorpe guilty? Of course he was! But although no one should condone murder, including a failed attempt, it is easy to understand why Thorpe resorted to such desperate measures. Here was a man to whom, sexual perversion aside, he had shown kindness, only to be rewarded with attempts to out him as a closet homo and thereby destroy his career, not from any idealistic or even political motive, but solely out of spite. Shooting Scott would indeed have been no worse than shooting a mad dog, as he said at the time. Nowadays of course, out homosexuals can and do hold high political office, and no one bats an eyelid. Perhaps Thorpe was simply born too soon?