188: Jeremy Thorpe 6

from “Private Eye”, 20 February 1976
illustration by William Rushton.

A regular feature of the very early 60s “Private Eye” was “Chatto”, which like an English Jules Feiffer cartoon, would feature several panels of the Rushton-drawn respectable moustachioed figure rather simplemindedly working his way through all the contradictory commonplaces about some current issue. “Private Eye” exhumed Chatto for this hot social topic.
Here, the monologue runs the gamut from a pretense of superior disinterest, to considering Thorpe’s other character issues, to really reveling in salacious gossip. This is all played off against the encounter with the ear-ringed chap wearing the bracelet and the enormous fur coat. And quite what is occurring in the final panel, behind the umbrella held at waist level?