A Very English Scandal
 

I just binged on this mini-series from the BBC on Amazon Prime. It is the shocking true story of the first British politician to stand trial for conspiracy to murder. Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant), the leader of the Liberal party, has a secret he's desperate to hide. His ex-lover Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw) is putting Thorpe's brilliant political career at risk so Thorpe schemes and deceives until he realizes there's only one way to silence Scott for good.

There are only 3 episodes so it is quite comfortable to watch in its entirety in one or two sittings.

Hugh Grant was fabulous, as was Ben Wishaw. Highly Recommend.

Thank you, BK001,

You just planned my evening. :)

Boomer the Binger

You're welcome. And I thank you back for Vanity Fair. (I did that in one sitting, pfew!) but it was worth it.

In this one, I had problems with the British accents/volume for the first 3-5 minutes but then it vastly improved. Enjoy.

I know what you mean. I turn on the captions sometimes for British accents. (I bet they do it for our accents, too.)

I am glad you liked Vanity Fair as much as I did.

But I got carried away and decided to compare the movie version from 2004, starring Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp.

I think I went to sleep during part of that too long movie. I have nothing against Reese Witherspoon but she played Becky Sharp like we were supposed to see her as a helpless victim of her circumstances. I think I even saw her sniveling a couple of times.

Amazon Prime’s Becky Sharp would never snivel, certainly not a sincere snivel. She was far too busy manipulating her situation. She was like those women on long ago soap operas who kept us tuning in to see what bad stuff they were up to. Much more fun to watch.

Tonight I am going to watch Florence Jenkens Foster. Another true story. This one stars Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins, an heiress from NYC, who always wanted to be a concert pianist and play Carnegie Hall and her manager/husband Hugh Grant.

Have you seen it?

I have. I remember thinking how did they pull it off for so many years?

BK,

You might like Vera.

Vera is a detective who is of the age to have lived in TV for a few years. She is smart and a little grouchy and has a quick wit that she can direct with precision.

Vera is in Northumberland. The accent causes me to turn on the captions, but that's OK.

The cinematographer who shoots the show is a little too in love with his lingering lens to suit me.

The show is longer than an hour, close to an hour and a half maybe.

At first I kept thinking if we did not have to look through the lens at all those moors and heaths and wind blowing, for such a long time, the show would be a lot shorter.

But now I am used to it or might even be starting to like those artsy shots that can seem to take forever. (I am thinking of maybe turning it into a drinking game -- like every time there is one of those shots, I take a sip of Woodford Reserve.)

Anyway, fans of British mysteries might like to try Vera. It is on Acorn but I think it might be on Netflix, too.

OHHHHHHHHH, I watched that. You will love it!

Yes, I absolutely loved it. I thought Meryl Streep has never been finer. What a performance. Do you know she did her own singing? It took a lot of training to sing that badly. And Simon Helberg, in the role of her pianist, did his own playing.

Initially I thought her husband was only with her for the money, but in a strange way, I believe he really loved her. They were together in a common-law marriage for 25 years although the marriage was never consummated due to they syphilis she contracted at 18 years old on her honeymoon with her first husband, Dr, Jenkens. Five days after the concert at Carnegie Hall, she suffered a heart attack died a month later on November 26, 1944.

This is a movie I would watch again.

An interesting article contrasting the movie with the facts:

Florence Foster Jenkins' True Story vs the Meryl Streep Movie

Thank you for the link, BK. I'll be reading it tomorrow. And you've inspired me to watch it again.