Scoop

As "Scoop" (2024 release from the UK; 102 min) opens, it is "New York 2010" and a British celebrity photographer shoots pictures of Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein during a walk in Central Park. We then go to "Nine Years Later" and shortly after Epstein is arrested and kills himself, there is tremendous pressure on Prince Andrew to explain his friendship with Epstein. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from British director Philip Martin ("Hawking"). Based on the 2022 book "Scoops" by BBC Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, the film in essence falls into two parts: how was McAlister able to convince Prince Andrew (and his small entourage) to agree to the interview, and once they agreed to the interview, how did both sides prepare for the interview. The cherry on top of the cake is of course the interview itself, carefully reconstructed and recreated. If there is one common theme in all of it, it is how insanely clueless and completely out of touch Prince Andrew is with reality and with how this would be received by the public at large. Andrew is fully convinced the interview went well. To be clear: the interview could hardly have gone any worse for Andrew. The move benefits enormously from a strong collective performance by the cast, including Billie Piper as Sam McAlister, Rufus Sewell as Andrew, and last but certainly not least, a brilliant Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis (the BBC Newsnight interviewer). Bottom line: even though we of course know the outcome before we watch this, "Scoop" makes for a great journalism drama, and ik kept my attention from start to finish.

"Scoop" premiered on Netflix last weekend, and I just saw it the other night. It is currently rated 76% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels about right to me. If you have any interest in the British royal family or in the BBC, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Everybody has a right to their own opinion however in my view this is one of the most gripping films I've seen. Gillian Anderson is brilliant as Emily Maitless and Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew made the best of what must have been a very awkward part to play. The rest of the cast did a good job as well. The running time of 1 hour 42 mins passed so quickly. Once again Netflix triumphs so well done to them. It's not very often that there are decent tv and films around but thankfully this is definitely one of them in my humble opinion. I really found this production enjoyable. Well done to everyone involved.

The story of how Emily Maitlis came to interview Prince Andrew.

It doesn't exactly sound like a catchy plot, and indeed I thought it was an extremely bizarre recent event to dramatise, but it works.

The BBC hasn't exactly been covered in glory in recent times, but this scoop was seen as something of a revelation, the first time I and many others decided to tune into Newsnight, a show that's died away over the years.

It was an excruciating interview to watch at the time, it's one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen, that scene was perfectly recreated, Sewell and Anderson were both terrific, quality acting. I thought Billie Piper did a cracking job here too.

I'm not sure whether this film will have a broad appeal or not, the storyline is a rather curious one, but if you enjoy quality acting, try it out.

7/10.

Yet again, Gillian Anderson absolutely nails her character, Emily, the way she did with Thatcher. The expressions during the interview with the Prince were so uncanny, you almost do a double-take to see if they'd spliced in actual footage! Billy was good as Sam, although her performance and the script didn't quite capture Sam's humour and her strengths that you can watch on longer interviews she's done. Rufus did an adequate job as Prince Andrew, certainly with replicating the trainwreck interview sequence but I feel they could have touched on a bit more of his repulsiveness - however, the story is, afterall, from Sam's point of view. When he gets out of the bath to check his phone, after the interview had just aired, it would have been a nice touch to see who had left the message ~ "Mummy".

It's by no means a bad film. Overall, watching it is an enjoyable experience, But given the interesting subject matter, there is too much on matters that are irrelevant to the main issue

The interview with Prince Andrew captivated England at the time, and apparently much of the world too. If the film had concentrated more on how that came about , and the debates on both sides as to whether it should go ahead, I would have rated it higher. But the film lost its focus and concentrated far too much on the researcher who set up the interview. We see scenes with her mother. Scenes with her son. A debate about her son's girlfriend etc etc. If this was a fictional tale, maybe fair enough to flesh out other characters. But for a real life story, that wasn't what I was watching it for, and I felt it deflected attention from the main issues.