PETER BRADSHAW reviews SCOOP

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[@TheNetflixNook]

I was surprised by how immersed in the 3rd act I became. Rufus really crushes.

[@rdevans4097]

Thank you again Peter for saving me from watching this meretricious malarkey. Back in the day Gillian Anderson gave a heartbreaking turn in an excellent adaptation by Terence Davies of Edith Wharton’s House of mirth. GA was a revelation giving the proverbial finger to the naysayers who greeting her casting with universal derision. On the basis of her luminous performance I went to see her in an execrable stage version of All about Eve. Since then her acting has been variations on a theme…stiff, mannered and colourless. The trailer for Carry on Pizza Express only confirmed my misgivings. I read an interview with Emily Maitlis where she commented on her interview ‘It was clearly going to make him look ridiculous,’ hardly a stretch.

[@markkenny2001]

I thought Gillian Anderson was American.

[@rdevans4097]

@@markkenny2001from Chicago.

[@PassiveAgressive319]

I enjoyed it thoroughly. The cast was brilliant, but yes I found GA going into Maggie Thatcher mode rather than Matliss

[@SAMTYLER1974]

Watched this the other night and found my mind aimlessly drifting and ultimately just wanting to see the recreation of the interview itself. Shortly after I watched the original on RUclips and realised I could have just saved myself another hour. A decent enough cast will no doubt draw in the viewers but the whole affair just seemed a bit too confused, unnecessary and surprisingly boring for any accolades other than the prosthetics. As for the title I guess Scoop gives it a seedier more audience friendly hook whereas Coup would have no doubt had a large proportion of potential viewers awaiting a flock of pigeons …
… anyhow, kudos for the use of “poltroon”, a word I feel needs to be in everyone’s life at least once a day, unlike Andrew himself 🍕

[@speedtrls]

Very entertaining review Peter 😊 as soon as I saw a production photo of Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitliss, I felt this would struggle not to veer into camp parody. As you say, given Prince Andrew’s appearances particularly at the coronation, it feels like the coup this interview had was just another Royal pr disaster despite being much more serious. A depressing thought but hey ho. I’ll be watching.

[@sistagalsistagal8136]

I thought it was great.

[@jaybarnes6736]

Virginia's great great great great great grandchildren will be privately educated multi millionaire's because of a couple years light work she did flying round the world and living in beautiful houses... women's done good generational wealth

[@Tristan_again]

The film was entertaining enough but like Frost/Nixon, the original interview is much more interesting than the filmic adaptation.

[@stephenphillips4609]

Sounds like a missed opportunity and a waste of a good cast. . It's very easy to fall into the trap of 'THIS IS IMPORTANT, DON'T YOU KNOW!!!' but to do that, it either has to tell us something we don't already know or place the details we already know into one horrifying whole.

[@stephennapolitano]

Limo crash. 😂

[@artdad]

"Sam" did nothing but mug emotions and sentiments Throughout and added nothing but a bad hairdo and unattractive overall appearance. A character for whom nobody could care about. There was no tension built about anything and left everybody's real feelings in a jumble. Bad production.

[@joshdrayton1230]

Scoop is a smug, self-congratulatory affair, even though - if you know the facts - there's little for the central characters to be smug and self-congratulatory about. Landing the interview with Andrew is presented like it's some massive feat of investigative journalism; but all the actual investigative stuff was done by others - specifically the TV documentary that traced Epstein's history of sex trafficking and uncovered all the links to Andrew. Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) is depicted as crucial to nailing Andrew, but all she does is book the interview. Which, given the palace had already decided an interview was the way to go, wasn't exactly that much of a feat. The re-hash of the interview itself reveals little of interest about the preparation for it, or events behind the scenes. Certainly nothing worthy of a movie-length analysis. And Gillian Anderson's portrayal of Emily Maitlis is unconvincing, despite the best efforts of hair and make-up. At the end of it all, I couldn't help thinking that the events covered by the post-scripts before the end titles might have made for a much more interesting movie.

[@SevenEllen]

I agree. I thought there was something perverse about a show applauding members of the BBC for interviewing a predator ... when it was the BBC whom, for YEARS, protected Jimmy Saville.