The Big Picture

Billie Piper, Gillian Anderson, and Rufus Sewell deliver powerful performances.
The main interview is suspenseful and captivating.

Scoop
occasionally lacks some character depth, especially with the characters of Emily and Amanda.

Royal scandals are nothing new and often have the whole world talking. From Charles and Camilla’s affair to Harry and Meghan quitting their royal roles to, most recently, a Mother’s Day Photoshop debacle that led to Kate Middleton revealing a cancer diagnosis via video, all eyes are always on Buckingham Palace. One of the most damning and sickening stories involving the monarchy, however, is Prince Andrew’s friendship with horrific sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a Spotlight-like turn, Scoop tells this story by focusing on the journalists who brought it to light — more specifically, how the infamous interview on BBC’s Newsnight came to be.

Scoop (2024) How the BBC obtained the bombshell interview with Prince Andrew about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey EpsteinRelease Date April 5, 2024 Director Philip Martin

What Is ‘Scoop’ About?

Scoop primarily takes place in 2019. Right away, we learn that the BBC is struggling to remain relevant, and its employees are fighting to keep their jobs amid budget cuts and layoffs. One such employee is Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), who’s in charge of booking guests for Newsnight — ones that nobody else can (in addition to shades of Spotlight, there are also some Morning Show comparisons to be made). And one such guest she’s chasing is Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell), who is embroiled in the middle of the Epstein scandal.

Enter Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), Prince Andrew’s private secretary, who’s been trying to repair his reputation for years with little success. Desperate, she even hires a press strategist to help her get the job done, but he’s unwilling to think outside the box, which is why Sam’s unconventional, slightly rough-around-the-edges nature intrigues her. After jumping through numerous hoops, the interview is secured, and famous on-air journalist Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) is brought in for an hour-long interview that could have life-changing consequences for Prince Andrew and the BBC alike.

‘Scoop’ Is Well-Crafted and Tense
Image via Netflix

Scoop features excellent performances across the board. Piper makes for a fantastic protagonist, grounding the movie with charisma and grit. It’s easy to root for Sam and empathize with her when she fears she doesn’t quite belong at Newsnight, gossiped about and criticized for being “too Daily Mail” by her peers. Piper infuses Sam with tenacity and ambition, but there’s a warmth and lightness to her, too — especially in her scenes with Hawes. The moments where the two of them interact are some of the best in the film. The only dynamic that might edge it out is the one between Prince Andrew and Emily — a good thing, considering their interview is what the entire movie hinges on. Sewell completely disappears into the role, unrecognizable not because of hair and makeup but because of how precisely he captures Prince Andrew’s uncomfortable and discomforting essence. He’s somehow simultaneously stiff and overly relaxed, shy and childlike yet entitled and arrogant.

Anderson is mesmerizing as Emily, who is a celebrity in her own right, as Amanda has as many questions for Sam about her as Sam does about Prince Andrew. Anderson makes it a blast to simply watch Emily work. Her ability to memorize and repeat details back quickly comes off like a magic trick, and you can feel her nerves as she prepares for what very well be a defining moment of her career — especially after she regrets how she fumbled a previous one involving Bill Clinton.

The editing and direction do a nice job of capitalizing on that tension. One clever choice involves switching back and forth between Emily and Prince Andrew’s teams preparing them for the interview, trying to anticipate what the other is going to say and do and script their responses accordingly. This suspense carries over to the interview itself, which looks shockingly similar to the real footage. Even if you know the outcome, the film effectively immerses you in the moment, making you wait with bated breath for what comes next anyway. “It’s like a gunfight in a Western,” Emily quips when she’s told how she and Prince Andrew are going to be sitting during the conversation. That’s exactly what it ends up feeling like when we watch it — a battle with words instead of bullets.

‘Scoop’ Would Benefit From More Intentional Focus

There’s no doubt that Scoop has assembled an incredible cast, but the film doesn’t seem to want to commit to firmly declaring that Sam is the main character or making it a true ensemble, which leads to some odd choices. For example, we get glimpses of Sam’s personal life by showing her relationship with her son, Lucas (Zach McAlister), and while it’s sweet, it comes off as half-baked, cliché, and ultimately unnecessary. She struggles to juggle her work and personal life — a realistic conflict but one we’ve seen countless times in similar movies. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t add any new texture or perspective to the storyline. Instead, it presents Sam’s challenge of balancing her family and career in the most paint-by-numbers way possible, and it never rings particularly compelling nor never really goes anywhere.

The only other personal life we get a glimpse into is Prince Andrew’s, like when we see him carefully arrange dozens of stuffed animals on his bed (or chastise a palace worker for doing it wrong), recall a moment from his childhood, or prepare to bathe after the interview is released, and social media reactions are rolling in. Sewell makes all of these moments fascinating — not to mention appropriately uneasy — but they, too, don’t feel necessary. At times, they even seem to go against the entire point of the film. “Men like that hate not to be heard,” Sam says, having second thoughts about whether booking the interview was the right thing. These personal scenes walk a thin line between serving to expose Prince Andrew for the kind of person he is even when he’s alone and trying to evoke sympathy for someone who doesn’t deserve a redemption tour.

The other key female players — namely, Emily and Amanda — don’t get their own personal storylines. This would be more natural if not for the solo Sam and Prince Andrew scenes at home, but as it stands, it comes across like a missed opportunity to delve more deeply into them as people instead of simply employees. There are plenty of things you can critique about Bombshell, but it did a nice job digging into who its main trio are as people. Scoop’s official synopsis on Netflix emphasizes that this movie is about how the women of Newsnight secured this interview. It’s a bit of a shame we don’t get to truly know most of them beyond the surface.

“An hour of television can change everything,” Sam says. “It’s like magic.” Scoop is nearly two hours, and while it likely won’t change anything either in your own life or cinema as a whole, it’s still not a bad way to pass some time. It’s a relatively straightforward story we still, as a society, don’t have too much distance from, but it’s always nice to pay tribute to the often unsung heroes who break stories that matter — especially when you can assemble a cast this stacked to do it.

Scoop (2024) A tense atmosphere and great acting make up for some lackluster characterization choices.ProsBillie Piper, Gillian Anderson, and Rufus Sewell give excellent performances.The buildup to the climactic moment is effectively suspenseful.The interview itself is riveting and captures the essence of the real footage. ConsThe film makes confusing perspective choices.Many of the characters don’t feel as fleshed out as they should be.

Scoop comes to Netflix on April 5.

Watch on Netflix