'Scoop' review: The story behind Prince Andrew's infamous interview

WHAT IT'S ABOUT The story behind the 2019 BBC “Newsnight” interview with Prince Andrew about his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein gets dramatized for the screen in the Netflix movie “Scoop.” 

For those who don't recall the history that at once seems like yesterday and ages ago, the interview went quite badly for Andrew, including his headline-grabbing assertion about an inability to sweat. Days later, he stepped back from his duties for the British Royal Family.

The movie is directed by Philip Martin, who counts among his credits multiple episodes of “The Crown,” certainly a “Scoop”-adjacent program. The cast gets headlined by Rufus Sewell as the prince and Gillian Anderson as “Newsnight” anchor Emily Maitlis, with Billie Piper starring as producer Sam McAlister, who booked the interview, and Keeley Hawes as Andrew's very concerned private secretary, Amanda Thirsk.

“Scoop” is drawn from the real McAlister's book “Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews.”

MY SAY Journalism movies tend to fall along two lines.

The first consists of stories about process, whether it's booking a major interview in “Scoop” or reporting out a significant story, as in the recent “She Said” about The New York Times' Harvey Weinstein exposé.

The second category forgoes the grounding in realism, the docudrama approach, in favor of the personalities involved. Think “Nightcrawler,” with Jake Gyllenhaal as a cameraman roaming Los Angeles.

Many of the classics combine both approaches, to say something truthful and effective about what journalism can be at its best or its worst, while also offering characters that are worth caring about as people beyond the parameters of their jobs.

“Scoop” offers a believable portrayal of the behind-the-scenes wrangling involved in securing the interview with Prince Andrew. The movie gets a lot right in its portrait of the work put in by McAlister to earn Thirsk's trust; the preparation on both sides for the interview and more of the bottom-line details.

Even American audiences less attuned to the dramas of the royal family will appreciate the extent to which the movie imparts the interview's significance as Andrew's first opportunity to explain his relationship with Epstein to the public.

But the picture remains mired in that first category of journalism movie. It's so focused on the machinations behind securing the interview that it never elevates to anything more.

The problems begin with the fact that the work to put this particular sit-down together simply pales in dramatic comparison with the actual sit-down. Getting Andrew to agree to the interview certainly amounts to a coup in booking, and the more unsung people in the journalism business should always get the credit they deserve. But there's a reason the action away from the camera usually stays away from the camera. It's mundane.

This could have been helped had the movie spun the characters into compelling figures, and made the process of putting this together about something more than the basics. But they have minuscule back-stories and few complicating traits.

Put another way, “Scoop” misses on a key litmus test, by offering few revelations more compelling than rewatching the real interview.

BOTTOM LINE The depiction of the hard, gritty work of journalism is believable, but it doesn't make for especially engaging drama.