Hugh Grant to star as Jeremy Thorpe in BBC drama

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The Royal Television Society site reports that the BBC is to screen a three-part drama based on John Preston's book A Very English Scandal about the career and trial of Jeremy Thorpe.

It will be directed by Stephen Frears and star Hugh Grant as Thorpe.

I reviewed Preston's book on this blog. What was most interesting about it to those of us who remember the Thorpe affair is that it was told - sympathetically - from the point of view of his fellow Liberal MP Peter Bessell. He has received a bad press from other chroniclers. It is hard to see how that angle will be maintained in the television adaptation.

For those who need a primer on the affair - and it was all a long time ago - there is a splendidly lurid Daily Mirror article under the headline "Jeremy Thorpe scandal: Sex, lies and the shooting of an innocent dog called Rinka".

Mind you, Norman Scott, who was the intended victim of the plot, still pops up in the press to this day.

Stephen Frears' brother, incidentally, was the only SDP county councillor in Leicestershire during the Alliance years.