Hugh Grant plays British politician Jeremy Thorpe and Ben Whishaw plays his lover Norman Scott in the new BBC miniseries A Very English Scandal directed by Stephen Frears and written by Russell T Davies.
The miniseries, airing on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, dramatizes the British sexual and political scandal known as the “Thorpe affair” which took place during the 1970s in which Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party, was accused of conspiring to murder his alleged lover, Scott, for threatening his political future by talking about the affair.
Grant sat down with Stephen Colbert last night and talked a bit about the miniseries, particularly a sex scene he has with Whishaw.
“I’d literally just done Paddington 2 with him playing the bear!” said Grant.
Added Grant: “There are scenes with me entering the room – famously this all happened – with a jar of Vaseline and a towel. And one thing leads to another and it’s all there in the movie.”
Colbert then asked Grant if he had watched it with his family.
“I haven’t watched it with my small children,” said Grant. “They prefer Paddington. I did have to watch it with my 89-year-old ex-military father. I go around on Sunday nights and he said to me, ‘Now, now, you’re in this buggers film. And I said, ‘Yes, that’s right.’ He said, ‘Well, let’s watch it.’ And I said, ‘No Dad, you’re not going to like this.’ And he said, ‘No no no, I’m a very supportive father I want to watch it, I’ve got a television set upstairs, if you show me how to work it, we’ll watch it together.'”
“Yes, I had to watch me with the vaseline and the towel with my father.”
Watch the trailer for A Very English Scandal:
