Overview
Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization gives an insider account of how the women of Newsnight secured Prince Andrew's infamous interview.
Back in 2019, Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis conducted an immediately infamous interview with Prince Andrew regarding his connections with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The interview was impossible to not know about as elements of it were propelled over social media in memes, clips, and posts. The story of how the interview came about and the people involved in it was swiftly optioned for dramatisation, with two takes on the story racing for the gates – one from Netflix, and a miniseries from Amazon. Scoop is the first one to reach the audience, and waves a strong cast in the real-life roles it depicts, whilst admitting in a title card that some elements have been ‘dramatised’.
Billie Piper plays Sam McAlister, a BBC reporter who has been piecing together elements of the Epstein case, and investigating the links with important people in society, especially Prince Andrew. Feeling that the connections she suspects will be published elsewhere if word gets out about them, Sam wants to give the Palace a chance to respond to them officially and impartially via the BBC before it risks becoming ‘gutter press’ hysteria. She communicates with the Prince’s private secretary, Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Dawes) and surprisingly finds her quite open to the idea of the Prince himself being interviewed. Sam, along with presenter Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson), then research and work to plan out an interview that sticks to the BBC’s impartiality aspect, but finds a way to poke through the ‘official responses’ they will get.
It’s a story that we all know well, thanks to the internet age we live in, but whilst it isn’t telling us much new information, what Scoop does do is let us get under the skin of those involved. This is served well thanks to the marvellous cast throughout. Anderson as Maitlis is great, and Hawes is always a presence on screen. But this film belongs primarily to two people, Billie Piper as Sam and Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew. Piper is thoroughly engaging as Sam digs for details within a newsroom that is being hit with budget cuts and undue pressures. Sewell, under prosthetics, inhabits the Prince with mannerisms and posture to almost perfection. The smart manner in which archive materials of photos and video are tweaked to reflect Sewell’s features ground it all. The interview itself is played out in short-form highlights, and is as damning as the real life version was, but it does smartly avoid over sensationalizing the events, or proffering a forcibly accusatory finger, instead letting the events – as it did in real life – allow us to make our own minds up on what we feel the truth is.
This is a recent piece of BBC history that is still firmly in our collective consciousness, but Scoop digs back into the run-up more to turn it into a frenetic newsroom drama, which smartly makes it more about the people involved than the moment itself. Well cast and tightly paced, it’s one to watch.