Scoop features a strong ensemble cast with great performances from Billie Piper, Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell as the story behind securing Prince Andrew’s infamous image shattering interview is told, even if the screenplay struggles to find enough material to flesh out the story beyond what we saw unfold in the media headlines.

 

The Royal Family has been making headlines recently between the health of King Charles III and Kate Middleton’s alleged foray into photoshop and her unfortunate cancer diagnosis. It’s apt timing for the latest Netflix original film, and no doubt one that will get the Palace press office up in arms as one of the black marks on the Royal Family’s image is being dredged up again: Prince Andrew’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. Prince Andrew made headlines in 2014 after his involvement with Epstein and Epstein’s sex trafficking of underaged women was alleged in legal documents, to which he has admittedly denied. The public relations disaster ultimately led to Prince Andrew stepping back from his public duties as a working Royal years later and eventually being stripped of all his patronages and influence as a member of the Royal Family. The spark was an award winning, unprecedented interview from the Newsnight team at the BBC conducted in absolute secrecy with Prince Andrew. While the interview itself is an incredible piece of journalism, Prince Andrew’s appearance in it is largely regarded as one of the biggest public relations fiascos of the Royal Family’s history, gaining him negative press worldwide. While you can watch Prince Andrew’s infamous interview in full length online, the latest Netflix original film tells the story behind the interview and how the BBC team secured the interview of a lifetime. The thematic material at play is no doubt enthralling, and with veteran actors like Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell in the lead roles, there is no doubt enough to draw audiences into the film. But, the screenplay itself remains rather flat and cannot create the invigorating journalism drama that it so desperately wants to be. 

 

Adapting true stories about widely known events to the screen is challenging as the screenwriters have to balance the story audiences know with an insight that they were not previously privy to. The basis for Scoop is former Newsnight producer Sam McAllister’s book, and with McAllister being the individual at the BBC who was instrumental in securing Prince Andrew’s interview, it's a good starting point. Peter Moffat’s screenplay goes through the motions, focusing largely on McAllister’s efforts in pursuing Prince Andrew’s private secretary at the time despite being constantly told there was no story present by her superiors. During the film’s first half, Moffat captures not only McAllister’s efforts but the corporate turmoil within the BBC that made this a dangerous time for her to pursue an interview with a remote chance of success. This creates a hook to invest the audience in the story of the women behind the interview, before getting to the infamous interview itself. 

However, once the interview is secured, Moffat quickly zips through the interview preparation where Anderson’s Emily Maitlis becomes more involved in the story, rushing to get to the interview and its fallout for Prince Andrew. While there is no question that audiences want to see the interview re-enacted, especially with the tease of watching Anderson and Sewell go head to head, there is little to explore thematically here and the film did not need to devote as much time to it as it did. We’ve all seen clips of the interview and know how Prince Andrew was perceived, so there is little for Moffat to add to the dialogue surrounding it, other than creating a showcase moment for the cast. The focus in the film’s latter half should have been the interview preparation, giving audiences the behind the scenes look at how Maitlis and her team laid the groundwork for the landmark piece of journalism they created. It’s not detrimental to the overall entertainment of the film, as the interview sequence is without question exhilarating to watch. But, when compared to other great journalism films we have gotten in recent years such as Bombshell and Spotlight which also both focus on egregious abuses of power and influence, Scoop does not have the lasting impact on its viewers that these films did as it does not have much new to add to the discourse.