The reviews are unanimous, and largely for the same reasons. Almost every critic puts Hugh Grant first: his Jeremy Thorpe is praised for holding urbane charm and ruthlessness in the same body, and several call it the performance that carries the series. Ben Whishaw’s Norman Scott is the second name mentioned, with Alex Jennings also singled out. Beyond the cast, the praise settles on Russell T Davies’s script and Stephen Frears’s direction, and specifically on their handling of tone: farce and tragedy kept in balance, the absurdity of the scandal never allowed to bury the human cost of criminalised homosexuality.
The spread is narrow. Nobody dislikes it, and the reservations are small. The Times notes complaints about how Norman Scott is drawn, without sharing them itself. IndieWire is the coolest of the eight, finding the performances compelling but stopping short of the enthusiasm elsewhere. Variety admires the reticence and coded emotion where others enjoy the jokes.