It must have been "The Elephant Man", a story based on fact.
Hurt played a good and gentle man plagued by a hideous physical deformity, who was treated as a sideshow freak by Victorian society. Antony Hopkins played the physician who tried to help him.
I first noticed Hurt's over the top performance as the sadistic and bat-shit crazy Roman emperor Caligula in the BBC production of "I, Claudius". Also, if you ever get a chance to watch "The Naked Civil Servant" (another Brit TV production) check it out. Hurt plays Quentin Crisp, the notorious, but hysterically funny British gay writer.