For Americans, the BBC’s interview with Prince Andrew—assuming it even registered with many—was something of a footnote in the story of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But in the UK, it was equivalent to a bomb going off in Buckingham Palace. When the Duke of York gave an interview to Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, his absolute refusal to admit he’d done anything wrong, especially in staying friends with Epstein and his female companion Ghislaine Maxwell even after Epstein’s conviction, was seen as the most incriminating part of his appearance. He even denied knowing one of the underage women who claimed that she was forced to have sex with the Prince multiple times, despite photos to the contrary. It was a classic case of a royal thinking they were beyond reproach and the law, and it blew up in his face and effectively got him tossed out of the family in any official capacity.
Based on the real events surrounding the securing of the interview, Scoop tells the detailed and fascinating story of the high-stakes negotiations that went into convincing the Prince and his team that getting his side of the story out there was the only way to end the gossipy talk around his friendship with Epstein (the two were even photographed going for a stroll in Central Park ten years earlier; Andrew claims that was the last time they spoke, as he ended their friendship after Epstein’s conviction).
The entire process seems to have begun with Prince Andrew (played masterfully by Rufus Sewell, almost unrecognizable) gathering a PR team tasked with restoring his credibility. The team, which included his longtime private secretary and top aide Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), reached out to select journalists about some charity work Andrew was involved with to see who saw interest in the story, and Newsnightproducer Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), whose news stories tended to lean more toward tabloid journalism than her coworkers’ stories did, responded, seeing an opportunity to score an interview with Andrew. Her colleagues had little faith in her, but Sam was a bold straight-shooter, who told Thirsk up front what she wanted and why she thought it was good for the Royal Family.
And when Andrew’s team took the bait, producer Esme Wren (Romola Garai) and anchor Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) began preparing questions and strategy for what was described as a forensic showdown with the Prince. Rather than bombard him with hard-hitting questions, the journalists recognized that Andrew was someone who was used to talking when he wanted to, and they allowed him to do that until he effectively buried himself with his own words.
Directed by British TV veteran Philip Martin, Scoop could have easily been staged as a stage play with just two sets—the newsroom and the palace room where the interview took place. The film is laser-focused and has removed all of the fat from its screenplay, leaving just the necessaries. Perhaps the only embellishments occur around McAlister’s story of a producer who has never been taken seriously because she comes in late, does her work, and leaves early. But her contacts and results are undeniable, and these series of events give her the evidence she needs to prove her worth as reporter and negotiator. The process is endlessly interesting and presented as simply and powerfully as possible. I suspect that stories surrounding the Epstein case are going to provide storylines for film and television for years to come, but Scoop is a unique work that trumpets the importance of serious journalism outside of investigative work.
The film is now streaming on Netflix.
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