‘A Very English Scandal’ is returning with another real-life 1960s scandal
The BBC’s award-winning A Very English Scandal is becoming an anthology series.
The period drama’s first season aired in the UK last summer and told the incredible true story of politician Jeremy Thorpe’s attempts to silence ex-lover Norman Scott following the pair’s secret affair in the 1960s.
Written by Russell T Davies (Doctor Who, The Grand), the darkly comic three-part mini-series featured Love Actually star Hugh Grant in his first TV role in 20 years, alongside Skyfall actor Ben Whishaw.
A Very English Scandal executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins has now revealed that the series will return with a brand new cast to tell another real-life scandalous British tale, in the style of anthology series American Crime Story.
Season 2 will focus on the 1963 sex scandal involving Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll.
Treadwell-Collins explained their choice of subject matter: “The Duchess of Argyll was the first woman to be publicly slut-shamed.”
He told Radio Times: “We’re going to focus on the very public divorce from her second husband. He went through her private desk and found a list of all the men she’d slept with, as well as three Polaroid photos of her wearing only her pearls and giving a blow job to a man whose head was out of the picture.
“At the time, the news was in all the papers – people thought that it could have been a member of the royal family or the government or a Hollywood actor. No one still knows who it was.”
Casting for the second season of A Very English Scandal has yet to be announced, but Treadwell-Collins expects a big name star to lead the cast again, like Hugh Grant did in the first season.
He commented: “For an actress in her late 40s or early 50s, it’s an amazing part. In fact, three actresses have asked to play the role.”
Russell T Davies won’t be back as the show’s writer, however, as the producers are looking for a female writer to tell the story of this “feminist scandal.”
Hugh Grant returns to BBC One next week in a mini sequel to Four Weddings and a Funeral for charity.
A Very English Scandal is available to watch on Amazon Prime.