If the translation of the film Scoop were literal it would be closer to the truth as it would not say the Brazilian version of The Great Interview. The film that addresses how the disastrous interview with Prince Andrew was conceived, negotiated, produced and shown is a great work, the result of which has less to do with the journalists and more to do with the Prince’s error in judgment. However, bringing together investigative journalists and the Royal Family is booming with the algorithms and on the platform of The Crown and Meghan and Harry – Netflix – having a film with another one of the Windsors is almost mandatory at this point.

The argument for transforming the interview that had such a huge impact on the end of Elizabeth II‘s reign is somewhat weak, especially so many years later, although what lies behind the drama is still shocking. Andrew, the Duke of York, was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and a ‘user’ of the sex trafficking network for which the American millionaire was arrested in 2019. The pressure of public opinion on the intimacy of a member of the Royal Family with a criminal convicted by American justice gained momentum during the #metoo years and the inability of the prince and his team to deal with current culture was something striking for anyone who followed the drama. Still, the film leaves something to be desired.

The Prince’s bad reputation and suspicious friendships

When he was still third in the line of succession (behind Charles), young Prince Andrew was quite popular among his subjects, reflecting the relationship as a kind of William and Harry of the previous generation. Just like his god-nephew Harry, Andrew was considered charismatic and the protagonist of parties, small scandals and gossip, the Queen’s ‘favorite’ and, like the spare, with greater freedom to make mistakes, after all it was very difficult for him to become King.

His relationship with famous actresses and models of his time, his marriage to the commoner Sarah Ferguson and his friendship with his sister-in-law, Princess Diana, kept Andrew in a protective bubble that over time reduced, but which he apparently did not follow. From being funny he gained a reputation for being rude and arrogant, as a conqueror he began to be questioned for the choices made by his friends and thus he navigated through the 21st century. None of this is put into proper perspective in the film, which assumes that whoever watches it is an expert on the Royal Family, but which fails to explain how the Duke’s own staff did not realize the mess he was getting into.

Until he divorced Sarah Ferguson in the late 1980s, amid scandals of being cheated on by his wife, Andrew was a war hero and devoted father to his daughters, Eugene and Beatrice, but, upon becoming single again, he returned to circulation at parties and his friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell brought him, as well as his daughters and his ex-wife who is still his best friend, closer to Jeffrey Epstein’s network.

The photos of Ghislaine, Epstein and Harvey Weinstein with the Duke’s daughters, Sarah and Andrew himself are still jaw-dropping today as the most prominent trio of sexual crimes that are finally considered intolerable were clearly part of the Yorks’ list of friends , even if this intimacy remained – as they try to claim – at parties with many guests. In the case of Epstein and Ghislaine, there are more intimate records of them in Windsor and Balmoral, palaces not exactly open to the circulation of strangers.

With the criminal convictions (and death, in Epstein’s case) of the three, it became difficult for Andrew to free himself from public charges for his participation in the crimes. And that’s where he slipped. Andrew was one of the most frequent visitors to Epstein’s island, as well as his homes in Miami and New York, being named in the lawsuits against the millionaire. He was burned out in public opinion and the silence of the imposed mantra about never explaining himself was making everything worse. In 2019 the case was at its peak and there would be no escape, not even for Royalty.

Andrew’s decision to ‘disobey’ the Palace’s silence strategy was a disaster foretold and it is still shocking that no one on his side noticed. That’s the story, or could have been, of Scoop.

Behind the scenes of an interview that is not great, but fatal

Scoop is based on the book written by producer Sam McAlister, who was a producer at the BBC’s Newsnight and who managed to score the interview. Therefore, it reinforces the role of female journalists who got the scoop. It is worth remembering that all interviews with members of the Royal Family are ultra-controlled, the only one that had gone out of the mold was Diana and even then when she was already separated from Charles.

Both Diana and the current King had shaken the structures of the Monarchy with candid interviews about their marital problems, which made the rule of “never complain, never explain” have even more weight in the following years. That’s why Sam’s (Billie Piper) work is considered relevant. She, who has a proletarian background and was not part of the journalists who covered the Royalty, had the specter of unemployment hanging around, was not popular with her colleagues, but had a journalistic flair. She realized there would be an opportunity to make history and followed her instinct.

If you don’t follow coverage of the Royal Family, here’s an addendum. There are “specialists” whose access to family members is controlled by each person’s communications team. The Queen had her staff and reporters they considered trustworthy, Charles had his, and so on. Andrew also has a team that takes care of his image. On the press side, tabloids like the Daily Mirror (owned by Ghislaine Maxwell‘s family) are considered minor in the news, exploring scandals and celebrities. Sam was too “Daily Mirror” to his BBC colleagues, as we heard one of them complain. Keeping this in mind better contextualizes both her victory and the obstacles she faces.

Through professional acumen, Sam has access to Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), Prince Andrew’s private secretary who is distressed by the negative image that the press has been selling of him. The film doesn’t make it clear enough, but Sam manipulates Amanda by claiming that he will give the prince space to talk about his work, without hiding that he also wants to know about his connection with Epstein, something that takes on even greater importance when the millionaire dies and one of the main witnesses of child abuse mentions having had relations with Andrew. Everyone wants to know if it’s true and what he has to say.

The perfect storm

Wasting no time in introducing anyone to a wider audience, Scoop accelerates all negotiations until Sam teams up with producer Esme Wren (Romola Garai) and presenter Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) to get the exclusive interview. The part where everyone prepares for the big moment is the highlight of the film.

Andrew’s ‘bad luck’, extremely well played by Rufus Sewell, goes beyond his arrogance, which can be understood as a consequence of the isolation of members of the Royal Family. Amanda Thirsk is almost innocent and without detachment after working with him for seven years, she refuses to believe the worst rumors about her real boss and is worried about rehabilitating his public image, not realizing that the only way is the one he never considered: explain, and most of all, apologize.

The sequence of the prince’s frustration when an employee (Mia Threapleton, daughter of Kate Winslet) makes a mistake when arranging his collection of stuffed animals, a true and frightening fact, makes it clear how Andrew was not ready for what he would face. And we soon realized that not even Amanda could be where she was. A storm announced.

Even with the support of Princess Beatrice (Charity Wakefield), who believes that in current times silence is worse for her father’s image, they fall into the traps of good journalism, which include asking the interviewee anything. Advisor Jason Stein (Alex Waldmann) tries to warn and gives up the job when he realizes that Amanda’s innocence, who already feels like an indirect part of the Royal Family, is uncontrollable. She thinks everyone will see Andrew “as he is”, without realizing that this is precisely the greatest danger.

An accurate reconstruction, but paradoxically, fails

It is necessary to mention again that the worst failure of all in Scoop’s history is to virtually ignore the main victims of every crime: the teenagers abused by Epstein and his friends/partners. Yes, the film is specifically about Andrew’s downfall, and yes, the victims are mentioned, but ultimately, not exactly enough.

I recommend looking for the real interview on YouTube to see how the best part of Scoop is just playing the recording. The Prince’s responses are ridiculous most of the time, uncontrolled and as we know, disastrous. But they don’t have the weight of absurdity when nothing else is actually shown.

The scene of Andrew literally naked, realizing that he has become a joke, is as graphic as it is metaphorically forced by the script. And more than him, it is Amanda who is portrayed as pathetic and incompetent. To make matters worse, after all the drama surrounding Sam’s personal life, she is relegated to the background with the spotlight given to Emily, who is frustrated from an old interview that didn’t go well when confronting Bill Clinton that none of us understand. , remembers, or doesn’t even care. Emily seems to regret having done like everyone else in her time, condemning Monica Lewinsky and pardoning the former American president, so defending Virginia Giuffre against Prince Andrew would be her chance to redeem herself. That would be an interesting angle to understand the interviewer, but Scoop misses it.

Therefore, there are moments of expectation that the drama will take off, but fear or laziness prevails. Ultimately, Scoop is paradoxically abusive and opportunistic like the characters he purports to want to expose. The sensationalism the tabloids condemn is nothing far from what they did with the interview and not even the current tale of how a public personality can be destroyed through a lack of self-criticism is the end result. Unfortunately, this has been the trend of Netflix in almost all of its content.

Still, due to a great performance by Rufus Sewell, Scoop can be seen as a study of one of the worst moments of the public collapse of the Royal Family in its recent history. Superficial, indecisive, and inconclusive, but it works as a ‘spin-off’ of what was left out of The Crown. If one day they are going to do something similar to Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, I hope they are more prepared. About Andrew? We will soon see the Amazon Prime Video version, which chose the book and narrative by Emily Maitlis, already recorded and starring Ruth Wilson, probably released later this year. We wait!

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