BBC One's 3-episode miniseries A Very English Scandal is based on a true story by Jeremy Thorpe. Homosexuality was only just decriminalised in the UK in the late 1960s, and the Liberal leader at the time, and the youngest leader of a British party in over a century, Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant) was hiding a secret – he had a former gay man named Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw)
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As long as Norman Scott is alive, this is a threat to Jeremy Thorpe, so he plots the murder, but in the end, not only does it fail, he is also charged with attempted murder. The incident made Jeremy Thorpe the first British politician to be tried for murder, and his queer status was known to the public; in the end, Jeremy Thorpe was acquitted but ended his political career
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The series is directed by Stephen Frears and written by Russell T. Davies
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