SCOOP

Scoop is potentially the most anticipated straight to streaming movie of the year. The dramatisation of 2019’s infamous interview between Emily Maitliss (Gillian Anderson) and Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell).

Based on Sam McAlisters book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews the film does, as the title of the book may suggest, take us behind the scenes of the conception of what is possibly Newsnights most famous episode. The events leading up to it, and then the fateful interview itself.

The interview scene, for all it is mostly word for word what happened in reality, is compelling viewing. Seeing a prince of the realm unwittingly castrate himself for all the world to see, while his advisors and legal representatives continue to faun over him is something that, five years after the event, is impossible to take your eyes off of.

Seeing the social media impact - the social commentary and the immediacy of the memes from which he will never outrun - is breathtaking.

Anderson and Sewell are both fantastic during these scenes. While they may not fully resemble or sound like their characters, they both fully embody who they are. Their mannerism and gestures. Their verbal and non-verbal ticks. I never had any problem believing them in their roles, and when they are trying to portray people who are incredibly high profile this is as large a compliment as I am able to give. 

Where Scoop maybe stumbles a little however is that, for all this segment is hugely enthralling, what comes before it is less so.

We know that the interview happens. We’ve all seen it, and it is literally what the film is about. And so it is difficult for the film to create any tension around this.

So when it devotes so much time to the process of booking the interview, creating a will they won’t they - but of course they definitely will - narrative around it, this could be a problem.

Luckily for Scoop, they have Billie Piper. And while Anderson and Sewell will be the names that make the headlines it is Billie Piper who steals the show.

As producer Sam McAlister she delivers the performance that Scoop survives on during its first hour or so. Because for all we know what is going to happen Piper completely sells the emotions of it. She completely sells the fact that she doesn’t know. That she is desperately trying to make it happen. We can believe what she is going through and this gives us an emotional branch to grab on to as we float down what would otherwise be a relatively serene river.

Credit too needs to go to Keeley Hawes as Amanda Thirsk. Aide to Prince Andrew, Thirsk is here portrayed as someone with unflinching faith in her boss, and someone desperate to find a way for him to put the Epstein links to bed once and for all. 

Again she absolutely manages to sell her feelings for Andrew. She sells how taken in she is by his charms. And again the film thrives in these moments between them, and the moments between her and Pipers Sam. 

It is in these performances that the film manages to create tension, when the story itself lacks it. 

While the film never goes out of its way to overtly accuse Andrew of anything itself, it really doesn’t need to. By presenting the facts of the story as they happened, and - most importantly - reenacting the words he said verbatim, the damage is already done. Scoop does not need to do anything more.

By presenting the interview how it happened, without sensationalising its events, it reiterates the sheer insanity of it. The lack of self awareness that comes from the royals. 

Scoop, for the most part, takes the weight of both its subject matter, and the levels of anticipation around it, and create a compelling and enjoyable political drama. It handles the sensitivity of its content deftly and with thoughtfulness.

This is a timely reminder that for all of the tabloid hate-mongering of Harry and Meghan. For all of the social media conspiracies around Kate and Wills. That there is still, rattling around the palace, an accused sex offender. Someone with undeniable links and relationships with sex traffickers, rapists, and paedophiles. 

And the Prince has got no clothes on.

For all of the charm he thinks he exudes. For all the journalistic fluff pieces and lies that he has told. For all the flattery and ego massaging he receives from his inner circle. He has been laid bare. 

In November 2019 the world saw him for what he was. Someone who at the very best enabled the crimes that these people committed. And at the very worst actively participated in them.

Allegedly, of course.