‘Scoop’ movie review: Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell sparkle in engrossing drama on Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview

The remarkable performances elevate this intense telling of what went behind the Duke of York’s infamous 2019 interview with BBC’s Newsnight about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

(Originally published in The Hindu on April 08, 2024)

How Prince Andrew’s infamous friendship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to the downfall of the Duke of York in the most chaotic manner possible is a story so complicated and dumbfounding that you almost feel sceptical at the thought of a film taking a crack on it in just over 100 minutes. But Netflix’s Scoop, directed by Philip Martin, is headstrong in anchoring it to one major objective: to take a clinical look at what went behind Andrew’s 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with lead anchor Emily Maitlis — which played a crucial role in the “Queen’s favourite son” stepping down — from the eyes of Sam McAlister, the former Newsnight editor and interview booker who secured the interview.

Adapting McAlister’s book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews to the screen, screenwriters Peter Moffat and Geoff Bussetil pull off quite a few deft writing choices in this tricky narration. The most fascinating of them all is where the film begins to unfold the story, when paparazzi photographer Jae Donnelly (played here by Connor Swindells) clicks the infamous picture of Andrews (a prosthetic-heavy Rufus Sewell) and Epstein (Colin Wells) walking together at Central Park, New York, in 2010.

It’s a screenwriting move that you understand only retrospectively — Donnelly hardly features in the film — when you realise the key role that the photographs played in what happened to Andrew and Epstein. Donnelly’s photographs not only captured what Andrew admittedly regrets in his equation with Epstein (meeting with him even four years after the sexual abuse accusations), but the usage of that image by media over the years plays a crucial role in how Andrew was seen by the people before McAllister (Billie Piper in a remarkable turn) uses public opinion to urge Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), Andrew’s private secretary, to do the interview to set things straight.

Interestingly, it was again another photograph, of Andrew with…

Read the full review here:
https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/scoop-movie-review-gillian-anderson-rufus-sewell-sparkle-in-engrossing-drama-on-prince-andrews-newsnight-interview/article68040693.ece