Netflix’s Scoop is a triumph so uncanny and well acted, I felt like I was watching the original Prince Andrew interview
EVERY team striving for a goal will have midfielders desperately racing up and down the pitch, only to find themselves forfeiting all the glory to the strikers up front.
It’s a hackneyed footballing metaphor, granted, but it’s still true in virtually every workplace. It’s even the case, it turns out, in the BBC‘s Newsnight offices.
This less than level playing field is the premise of this new Netflix drama examining how the Beeb secured the disastrous interview with Prince Andrew in 2019.
They did it thanks to the ultimate midfielder in the form of Newsnight booker, Sam McAlister, played by Billie Piper, who persistently and diligently pushed Buckingham Palace to set up the grilling.
The striker was the utterly brilliant Emily Maitlis, played by Gillian Anderson, who went head-to-head with the royal and allowed him to hang himself with his own arrogance and delusion.
What’s great about the dynamic between the two women is that they aren’t pitched against each other in the drama. They are distinct personalities, but there’s no bitchy jostling going on – Scoop sees them work in tandem, beautifully.
Despite this, the show never shrinks from the central theme: none of this would have happened without Sam.
She is the platinum blonde, animal-print wearing single mum from a working class background who, let’s be honest, isn’t the sort of person you instantly imagine when you picture a BBC journalist (a compliment to Sam).
Billie and Gillian nail both women and they’re only surpassed, arguably, by Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew. He manages to capture the royal’s bizarre blend of pomposity and naivety through perfectly-observed body language and expressions.
Everything from the delivery of the lines to the backdrop, prosthetics, lighting and costumes are replicated with pinpoint accuracy, so much so that you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching the original interview.
Scoop is a triumph which sets the bar incredibly high for Prime Video’s upcoming version of the story, A Very Royal Scandal, which focuses more on Emily.
In the meantime midfielders up and down the land should join Sam in revelling in this rare recognition.
Scoop will be available to stream on Netflix tomorrow (April 5).