An ambitious TV news booker attempts to secure an interview for BBC’s Newsnight show with Prince Andrew to talk about his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in this worthy but lightweight Netflix original.

Summary

2019. Sam McAllister (Billie Piper) faces push-back in her attempts to book an exclusive interview with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) for the BBC’s respected Newsnight programme to talk about his friendship with financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender. Along the way, she battles resistance among her team, conflict with the show’s icy presenter, Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson), and the power of the royal family.

Meanwhile, as the full weight of Epstein’s activities become known, pressure is on to be the first to get the Queen’s favourite son to come clean about what he knew and the extent of his involvement.

Review

*Spoilers* The irony of Scoop is that while the narrative involves a news team trying to get a big story, the film lacks one; at least, one that’s sufficiently compelling, given the acting talent and the themes at play.

The main problems are that the film doesn’t spend enough time investing us in the characters, setting up the stakes, upping the dramatic tension, or exposing the institutions around which the action revolves.

The choice of protagonist doesn’t really help. The film sets up McAllister as a feisty outsider who’s not taken seriously by the haughty BBC (we know she’s feisty as she wears oversized sunglasses, eats kebabs and uses Don’t Rain on My Parade as a ringtone). As such, she’s our down-to-earth guide through two stiff British institutions: the BBC and the royal family.

However, while we get glimpses of her motivation and stakes, it’s not enough. A vague threat of BBC job cuts and a teary declaration to her mum that she wants to do something important don’t really cut it. Likewise, glimpses of her home life as a single parent who puts her work first are thin and unnecessary, adding nothing to what she stands to gain or lose from the Andrew story. This lack of “oomph” spreads to the rest of the film.

We know from the outset that a.) the interview took place; b.) it caused a stir; and c.) nothing of substance really came of it. Therefore, the narrative becomes about the journey rather than the destination.

Unfortunately, the main “drama” here revolves around a couple of polite but terse meetings with Andrew’s loyal press secretary Amanda (Keeley Hawes), Maitlis’ nervy prep for the interview, and the ticking clock created by Epstein’s midpoint arrest (and subsequent death in jail).

Conflicts within the Newsnight team are glossed over and, once the interview is in the can, there’s not even any last-minute “will it run?” tension, despite Andrew’s mummy (i.e. the late Queen) supposedly getting involved. By all accounts, Andrew and his flunkies wrongly saw the broadcast interview as a “win”, which would finally shut the press up about his Epstein connection once and for all.

Meanwhile, one of the more interesting aspects of the story is hardly touched, that of Newsnight being at once part of the BBC – a public institution, paid for via an obligatory tax (or TV licence) – but with the same demands for viewership and relevance as a commercial news channel.

At the beginning, we’re told that the future of Newsnight might be under threat, but, again, this is too mealy and abstract for us to truly believe that failing to land the Andrew exclusive will mean curtains for the show.

Issues regarding the BBC’s role in public life were recently explored in the drama The Reckoning (2023) (about TV personality, serial abuser and paedophile Jimmy Savile). However, that the interview in question in Scoop is with a royal adds a further complication, which could have offered fertile ground for a deeper exploration of these uniquely British tensions and conflicts.

Spending less time on McAllister’s son’s crush on a girl at school and more time delving into the inner politics of the BBC’s news arm could have elevated this story and made it more thought-provoking.

While the focus is on the BBC Newsnight team, we spend a considerable amount of time with “Air Miles Andy”, who comes across as a weak and oblivious mummy’s boy who can’t really see what all the fuss is about. As written, he’s a petulant buffoon who’s more concerned with the positioning of the soft toys on his bed than with being tied to Epstein’s trafficking of young girls.

Maybe Andrew’s most telling moment comes during his first meeting with the Newsnight team to discuss the interview, when he ponders out loud (with daughter Beatrice in the room) why people care so much about his friendship with Epstein when he knew Savile so much better.

One of the other problems with Scoop is that the interview itself is a bit of a damp squib. A newsworthy coup, certainly, but there’s no “if the president of the United States does it, it’s not illegal” outburst (as in Frost/Nixon (2008)).

Pre-interview, Maitlis is keen to emphasise that there will be no “gotcha”, made-for-TV moment and Andrew duly obliges, batting away her questions with responses that range from tone-deaf understatement to cringeworthy waffle.

Ultimately, while we’re solemnly told that it’s all about the truth and making a difference, the film leaves us with the impression that the success of the interview boiled down to the social media attention it received and the awards it garnered.

Meanwhile, though stripped of his titles, Andrew is still a royal; Newsnight is still on the air; and Jeffrey Epstein is still dead.

Writer takeaway

An important aspect of screenwriting is character introduction and set-up. As written, the opening to Scoop takes us to New York nine years before the main action takes place. We follow a paparazzi photographer as he tries to land a prized image of Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein together.

While this creates interest and movement – and has relevance to the rest of the story – arguably, the time could have been better served setting up our protagonist, who we meet on a bus headed to work at the BBC. We then see her in the office, where we find out about her job and the newsroom dynamics.

This introduction gives us a flavour of who she is but it doesn’t really establish her motivation or the personal stakes involved as the Andrew narrative unfolds.

Here are three alternative set-ups for the protagonist in Scoop:

1. Giving McAllister a teenage daughter instead of a son

This might have added a personal dimension to her desire to secure the Andrew interview, given the nature of accusations. Maybe a subplot in which McAllister overreacts to an older boy who takes an interest in her daughter might have shown us some of our protagonist’s inner fire.

2. Making the threat of her losing her job more concrete

Seeing more of her financial struggles and her insecurities about not fitting into the media world could have heightened her relatability and made us root for her success, while raising her personal stakes. Securing the interview then becomes important on a micro level (for McAllister) and the macro level (for the BBC and public interest). However, other than a nod of approval from her boss and a new-found respect from “superwoman” Maitlis at the end, it’s hard to see how the experience changed the fictional McAllister’s life.

3. Showing her in action

A third idea for introducing the protagonist comes from The Insider (1999), which is also set in the world of broadcast news (see below for more). Rather than telling us that protagonist Lowell Bergman, producer for CBS’ 60 Minutes news show, is dedicated to his job and willing to go the extra mile for a story, we see it first-hand.

The opening of the film drops us into Lebanon, where blindfolded men are driven to a house by armed soldiers. This creates an immediate hook, with Bergman later revealed to be one of the blindfolded men. It also emphasises Bergman’s gung-ho, proactive nature as we find out that, rather than being kidnapped, he is on his way to negotiate an interview. Showing McAllister in a tense interview negotiation in which she fails would have revealed her tenacity and fallibility.

Given that the film was based on the real Sam McAllister’s own 2022 non-fiction book Scoops, understandably the screenwriters’ hands were somewhat tied when it came to the protagonist’s portrayal. However, in this case, stepping further away from the facts to set up her fictional counterpart more effectively could have enhanced the story and made her personal journey more satisfying.

Go further:

Take a look at the actual BBC Newsnight interview, fictionalised in Scoop:

More films like this:

• Frost/Nixon (2008): British talk show host David Frost is granted a series of tense post-Watergate interviews with Richard Nixon – but can he get the former president to admit any wrongdoing?
• The Insider (1999): CBS producer Lowell Bergman must walk a fine line as he attempts to get ex-tobacco industry chemist Jeff Wigand to go public with damaging claims against his former employer.
• Good Night, and Good Luck (2005): Respected broadcaster Edward R Murrow and producer Fred Friendly take on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his destructive communist witch-hunts.
• Truth (2015): The careers of broadcaster Dan Rather and his producer Mary Mapes are on the line when they air a 60 Minutes‘ segment about President Bush avoiding the Vietnam War draft.