Netflix is here with a dramatised recounting of the process of getting Prince Andrew’s 2019 BBC television interview by presenter and journalist Emily Maitlis and the production crew of the BBC Two news and current affairs show ‘Newsnight’. ‘Scoop’ is based on former Newsnight editor Sam McAlister’s book ‘Scoops: Behind The Scenes Of The BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews’, published in 2022. ‘Scoop’ tells the story of the women who negotiated with the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the “scoop of the decade” that was the public catalyst for Prince Andrew’s downfall, in a televised interview that focused on Prince Andrew’s relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the allegations of Prince Andrew’s sexual assault of a minor. Here’s all you need to know about ‘Scoop’.
‘Scoop’: Story
The insider account of the inner workings of the Buckingham Palace and the BBC, twin bastions of the British Establishment, spotlighting the journalists whose tenacity and guts broke through the highest of ceilings and into the inner sanctum and calculations of a man with everything to lose. ‘Scoop’ revolves around how the BBC obtained the bombshell interview with Prince Andrew about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
‘Scoop’: Performances
Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew was brilliant. Firstly, his make up was so spot on that you could barely recognise that it was Rufus Sewell under all that prosthetics. Secondly, the way Rufus Sewell has managed to get the nuances right of Prince Andrew is spot on. Performances like these come once in a decade where you know that the character might not have too many scenes onscreen and might not even be the central character as well, but whenever the character is on screen, the audience wouldn’t look at any other character. Rufus Sewell is that good as Prince Andrew. He even has a bare back shot towards the climax, which pretty much felt unnecessary, but besides that it was charm to watch Rufus Sewell get the character of Prince Andrew so perfectly.
Billie Piper had the lion’s share of the screen time, and utilised it full well to present a well-rounded character. She was able to bring out the tensions and frustrations that go along with the job of being a news producer. The way she handles her personal life and her professional life while constantly juggling between the two is very life-like. Reporters and news producers have to forget their personal lives in order to get the best story possible in front of the audience, and Billie Piper’s performance manages to get those aspects very truthfully.
Gillian Anderson was wasted in a role that was promised the lead role, but had so few dialogues that you would be left wondering why someone of her stature decided to pick up this role. Probably because of the weight that the character had in real life, she must have taken it up, but her performance was at best a very passing extended cameo.
Ramola Garai as well was utterly wasted. Her character is just made to keep staring throughout the day. There are barely lines that she has in the film. It was only after the climax that you get to see her having a full-length monologue where she is reading out a fax for the entire office, and ends up congratulating everyone on the good job done. Besides that, there is barely any scene where she has two full dialogues. Absolute waste of her talent.
Keeley Hawes was good in the minimal screentime that she had onscreen. What was surprising to see was what being a media manager for the prince why would she play the character in such a shy and timid fashion. Media managers of such high-net-worth individuals are usually very robust and talk with so much authority that people are compelled to stand back and listen. That angle was sadly missing from her performance, which felt quite unnatural.
None of the other supporting characters had a worthy enough screen time.
‘Scoop’: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects
Peter Moffat and Geoff Bussetil’s script based on Samantha McAlister’s book takes the entire situation in a very surface-y manner. They don’t end up getting too much and just brush up on little bit of details. They start the story with some important characters but forget those characters midway and don’t mention them at all towards the end. Most of these things will pinch you as a viewer as you would be constantly questioning yourself as to why wasn’t this character shown again and what happened to that thing. Those loose ends make the script fall flat.
Philip Martin tries to play so safe with the direction that you’re left feeling is this just a propaganda vehicle? Philip Martin doesn’t end up getting into the nitty gritties of the instances that happened. He could have very easily made the film into a thriller where the audience would have been constantly on the edge of their seats thinking, do they or do they not get the interview eventually. I know it’s based on real life and people would already know that the interview happened. But to be able to give the audience that thrill of being in the shoes of the characters who were actually running pillar to post to get that coveted interview would have been nice. Playing the narrative so safely makes you just wonder, are the makers trying to whitewash something or someone’s persona?
Nanu Segal’s cinematography was too plain. You were shooting scenes inside the Buckingham Palace and yet you couldn’t capture the full grandeur of the palace? Sad. Just sad.
The editing by Kristina Hetherington was crisp, but it too needed to have a much better direction. When the direction faulters at not focussing on the important details and just playing it safe, what more can the editing desk do? Still Kristina Hetherington managed to give the narrative a little bit of semblance of a thrill-factor towards the climax.
Anne Nikitin and Hannah Peel’s music was also pretty bland. It didn’t give you the racy and chaotic feel of a newsroom. It didn’t make you feel as if you’re in the shoes of the characters and running from one place to the other to get things done. In films like these which rely so heavily on the race against time, the background score should have been a lot more paced up so as to give the audience the feel of the chaos that’s happening all around. Sadly, they missed heavily in this part.
‘Scoop’: Cast & Crew
Director: Philip Martin
Cast: Gillian Anderson, Keeley Hawes, Billie Piper, Rufus Sewell, Romola Garai, Richard Goulding, Amanda Redman, Connor Swindells, Lia Williams, Colin Wells, Aoife Hinds, Paul Popplewell, Andrew MacBean, Charity Wakefield
Available On: Netflix
Duration: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
‘Scoop’: Can Kids Watch It?
Yes
Outlook’s Verdict
‘Scoop’ is a wasted opportunity. It had all the means at disposal and could have much better utilised the story and the time of the talented cast. Terrible direction, some below average cinematography and a script that just was half baked make Rufus Sewell’s terrific act as Prince Andrew go down the drain. There was great potential on ‘Scoop’ which was just left untapped or utilised over unimportant things. If the performances hadn’t lifted up the filmmaking, this would have been just too much of a time waste. Just for Rufus Sewell and Billie Piper’s performances, this ends up being bearable. Otherwise, it is a Below Average Watch. I am going with 2 stars.
