A very English black comedy about the fear and damage of public shaming brings out the best in Hugh Grant.
Class and sex and politics; rum dealings over a national insurance card; badgers: they really couldn’t have called this darkly comic BBC mini-series, in which truth is considerably stranger than fiction, anything other than A Very English Scandal.
The series rather gleefully recounts the shenanigans that led to the 1979 trial of MP and leader of the Liberal Party Jeremy Thorpe for conspiring to murder his ex-lover, stablehand and would-be model Norman Scott, or “Bunny”, as Thorpe called him. The case immortalised such tender promises from Thorpe to Scott, written audaciously on House of Commons notepaper, as “Bunnies can (and will) go to France.”
Bunnies didn’t, as it turns out, go to France and he caused all sorts of bother when the affair ended. If Thorpe had simply got his ex the wretched national insurance card that he needed to get work and move on, which had been lost along his troubled, itinerant way, there would have been no need for a mini-series. He didn’t, and it’s not really a spoiler alert to say a dog dies in the ensuing chaos.
Denne historien er fra March 2 - 8 2019-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
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Denne historien er fra March 2 - 8 2019-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.
