Finely edited and well-paced, Scoop takes you into the heart of the infamous Prince Andrew interview and the working of television studios

Nonika Singh

When Jeffrey Epstein scandal broke out and his connections with the rich and famous, including Prince Andrew, Duke of York, member of the British royal family and Queen’s ‘favourite child’, unfolded, all hell did break loose. Scoop, however, isn’t about Epstein’s unpardonable crimes involving minor girls but the BBC interview, scoop if you please, that did Prince Andrew in.

Film: Scoop

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, Billie Piper, Keeley Hawes, Connor Swindells, Romola Garai, Charity Wakefield and Paul Popplewell

Director: Philip Martin

Rating: ***

The starting point of this Netflix film is a paparazzi photographer chasing and managing a snapshot of Epstein with Andrew in 2010 in New York. The scene shifts to 2019. We are in the newsroom of the BBC studios. The broadcasting giant is apparently facing a crisis, which will lead to an axe falling on its employees. While bickering among colleagues begins, we are introduced to key players of the team, including Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson), lead anchor of Newsnight, the current affairs programme that created history.

Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) is one of the junior producers who keeps her job by ‘booking people we just can’t call up’. She manages a foot in the Palace door where Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) is conducting Pitch@ Palace, an endeavour to back young entrepreneurs. Clearly the dirt on him has not settled yet. His PR team includes his press secretary Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), whose faith in him and his charm is touching, even if misplaced. She is busy strategising ways and means to contain the bad press created by his association with a convicted sex offender, Epstein. Damage control involves an outreach bid to ‘friendly journalists,’ though we see Prince Andrew rightly wondering aloud, ‘isn’t the term contradictory?’

Hustle begins for an interview and we get many authentic snapshots of how things work in actual studios. Of course, with the real explosive interview out in public domain, how do you make its dramatic recreation as arresting? But director Philip Martin, who directed many episodes of first two seasons of the royal drama The Crown, rises to the challenge. For one he moves behind the scenes, into, as he said in an interview, ‘the headspace’ of real men and women. The prep that went in the making of the infamous interview is laid out for us. Not surprising, for Scoop is based on Sam McAlister’s memoir, Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.

In fact, though we see Gillian Anderson as polished and tough as diamond Emily Maitlis, excelling as she always does, the real heroine here is attractive Billie playing Sam. She is ambitious, empathetic and persuasive. They band together and convince Prince Andrew to grant them an interview. Can they catch him on the wrong foot? Can ‘Randy Andy’ salvage his fast plummeting reputation?

The think-tank on both sides is in overdrive. And on the side-lines, we the audience too prepare for the showdown, the climatic high. Though we don’t get a complete sense of what Prince Andrew actually said, which led to his final fall from grace and relinquishing of his royal duties. For that, perhaps, the real interview would be more enlightening. But its dramatic rendering is striking enough to reignite our interest, much credit for which goes to Rufus Sewell for that unflattering depiction of Andrew. Sam’s one-liner, ‘An hour of television can change everything’ hits the nail. It did for Andrew only, not as he expected. The disastrous interview ended up painting a very sorry picture of him.

And the one hour and 40-odd minute film, finely edited and well-paced, takes you into the heart of the infamous interview and the working of the television studios. One of the telling moments in the film is when the three women, Emily, Sam and Esme Wren, and Newsnight editor (beautiful Romola Garai), step out in unison, like a formidable force.

If victims were young nubile girls, those who lent them a voice too came from their own gender. This says a thing or two about women power. Emily’s comment about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton saga, ‘he got his life back. She got decades of vicious misogyny’ too shares where the movie stands vis-a-vis sexual offenders. Besides, like the pointed question Emily asks Andrew, ‘is there anything you feel has been left unsaid’, much might be unsaid, but never ambiguous. The stance is clear and we hear it.

On similar lines

Nothing captures our imagination like a scandal and nothing is more comforting than its expose, bringing the powerful down. Who knows this better than filmmakers? Scoop joins the long list of movies and web series based on similar themes. Here is a look at those which have created a stir in the past.

She Said: Sexual harassment at workplace found a global voice with #MeToo movement. Focusing on two New York Times journalists, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who published a report against sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, the critically acclaimed film was hailed for its chilling realism.

Spotlight: Tom McCarthy’s newsroom drama, this Oscar-winning film follows Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into child abuse connected with Catholic priests. Starring Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams, it won unequivocal acclaim for performances, direction, pacing and more.

Bombshell, and The Loudest Voice: Fox News executive Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment scandal has been the subject of a film as well as a series. Besides The Bombshell, the seven-part finite series The Loudest Voice takes you into the rise and fall of Roger, who not only threw the ethics of journalism out of the window, but was as predatory as Harvey Weinstein.

The Post: This Steven Spielberg film, starring two great actors Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, was yet another triumph of journalism as it recreates Washington Post’s decision to publish part of Pentagon Papers.

State of Play: One more journalist drama, starring Russell Crowe as journalist Cal McAffrey, the fictional story was inspired by real life politics. The plot uncovers the mysterious death of the mistress of Congressman Stephen Collins, a role played by Ben Affleck.

All The President’s Men: Often seen as a template and precursor for other movies of similar nature, this 1976 film is about the infamously famous Watergate Scandal, which led to President Richard Nixon’s downfall. Based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by two journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, investigating the scandal. The memorable parts were essayed by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, respectively.