BEN WHISHAW PLAYS THE GAY LOVER OF A LEADING UK POLITICIAN IN A NEW BBC DRAMA WHICH CENTRES ON POSSIBLY THE GREATEST SCANDAL EVER TO HIT THE BRITISH ESTABLISHMENT

BEN WHISHAW

TV

“Billed as the trial of the century, the verdict was almost as sensational as the case itself after the judge’s biased summing up”

Ben Whishaw is sitting in a caravan in the grounds of a Victorian gothic mansion in Buckinghamshire, with blood splattered all over his face.

The gore seems to have come from a Great Dane called Rinka, which has been shot in front of him. Fortunately, no animals have been harmed in the filming of this scene. I know, because I’ve just seen the corpse of the dead hound lying in a bed of bubble wrap — and it’s reassuringly prosthetic.

In the late Seventies, poor, butchered Rinka was a household name. Her owner, a model called Norman Scott, had been the gay lover of Jeremy Thorpe, the brilliant and ambitious leader of the Liberal Party. To the macabre fascination of the nation, the dog was shot and killed in a botched attempt on the life of Scott himself, who had (what we would now call) stalked Thorpe after the affair came to an end.

In what was billed as the trial of the century, the leader of Britain’s third political party was charged with conspiracy and incitement to murder. The verdict was almost as sensational as the case itself. After a staggeringly biased summing up by the judge, who vilified the prosecution witnesses and suggested to the jury that it was impossible to imagine as decent a chap as Thorpe actually committing buggery, the politician was acquitted of all charges. But it ruined him.