A Very English Scandal marks Hugh Grant’s first return to the small screen since the early 90s, and the self-professed panicker has gone all out to impress viewers, he tells Gemma Dunn

HUGH GRANT is about to tick off, what he calls, 'part three of my trilogy of narcissists'. "It started with the guy – St. Clair Bayfield –I played in Stephen Frears' film Florence Foster Jenkins, who is a sort of 'Me, me, me; I want to be on stage'. And then there's Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2, who is just outrageous..."

The third? Arguably his most egotistical portrayal yet: the part of disgraced Liberal Party leader, Jeremy Thorpe, in BBC One's A Very English Scandal.

Based on John Preston's novel of the same name, the three-part drama tells the shocking true story of Thorpe who in 1979 was tried, but later acquitted, of conspiring to murder his ex-lover Norman Scott (played by none other than Grant's Paddington co-star, Ben Whishaw).

For those unfamiliar with the bizarre tale, the former MP was said to have embarked on a whirlwind affair with Scott in 1960s England, when homosexuality was illegal. And, with the relationship eventually turning sour and Thorpe's career on the up, it was said to be a secret that the politician was desperate to hide. This, it was claimed, led to the hiring of a hitman, a failed murder plot and an assassinated Great Dane by the name of Rinka.

It was an absurd turn of events but one Grant, 57, remembers well. "I grew up with it," recalls the London-born star, his foppish accent familiar. "In fact the timescale of this series, 1960-1979 is me from zero to 19, so I became more and more aware of Jeremy Thorpe. And then of course we all had a lot of fun when the trial came about, all the jokes about dogs and the sniggering... Because in these days, people sniggered at gay secrets and things like that.

"But the more I read about Thorpe, the more I realised, like a lot of politicians, they're show business. It's show business for the ugly, as they say. It was the Jeremy show. All his life, he was the star. He was just determined, this terrifying ambition to rise, rise, rise.

"Then, of course, there was this very complicated inner turmoil about being gay and what that felt like in the years when it was illegal," says Grant, who made his name playing the bumbling, floppy-haired heartthrob in 90s hits Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill.

A comedy tinged with tragedy, he believes it to be a "celebration of the oddity of life - particularly English life".

"I love things which are funny and sad at the same time, which rejoice in eccentricity," he explains. "And I've become very interested in politics over the last six years, so I love that aspect of it. But unlike Stephen Frears said, that it was an obvious casting, it wasn't obvious to me," he says, confessing he didn't think the director would want "the guy who made big, fluffy romantic comedies".

"He rang me up and said, 'Well, what do you think?' And I said, 'Well, which part? I'm about 400 years too old to be Jeremy Thorpe at the beginning of this film'. I thought he might want me to play Rinka the dog or something!"

Thankfully not. But the role of Thorpe itself would take some groundwork.

"It's unlike me to do any prep at all, really, but I was quite panicked by this project," confesses Grant. "I quite respect Stephen and then Ben Whishaw? I thought 'f***, I better try and be good. Everyone is going to watch this. I'm particularly frightened of the British and British audiences, so I panicked a lot."

To combat his fear, he read every single book on the subject.

"I went to meet lots of people that knew Thorpe, I dug up old films... some of them out of the bowels of the BBC that haven't been seen for decades," he says. "I don't know if it does any good, but it seems to soothe me a bit."

He even learned to channel Thorpe's musical prowess by taking violin lessons.

"I tried. God knows, I tried for months," he cries, scoffing at his newfound 'skillset'. "But the violin is completely impossible, as it turns out. That piece is a sort of virtuoso piece, so I said to my violin teacher, 'How long would you have normally been playing before you take this on?' And he said, 'About ten to 12 years'. So I did my best... and then my children broke two violins," admits the father of five (Grant has two children from a previous relationship and three - the most recent of which was born earlier this year - with Swedish television producer Anna Elisabet Eberstein).

Does he hope the series will introduce a whole new generation to politics?

"Well we're all quite politically aware these days," he replies, simply. "Big events, Brexit, Trump, we've got everyone juiced up and so a political drama set back in the 60s and70s, could be very interesting."

And as he admits, the subject of media scrutiny is not unbeknown to him.

"I've certainly been in the middle of press storms - such as Thorpe was when the scandal started to break around him," says Grant, who is famously pro-privacy having given evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and taken a seat on the board of Hacked Off. "I knew what that felt like. But there's lots of other things, you always look at the character here and you look at yourself here," he says, holding his hands out, one in front of the other. "And you say, 'Oh that matches up there' and it's not just that."

  • A Very English Scandal premieres on BBC One on Sunday May 20.