Intense. Thrilling. Insightful. Captivating. Suspenseful. Those were my initial thoughts after watching Scoop on Netflix, a film based on how Sam McAlister, ex-BBC Newsnight booker, successfully convinced Prince Andrew to be interviewed by Emily Maitlis.
Sam McAlister, played by the amazing Billie Piper, illustrates the internal, behind the scene struggle involved in getting what you want in the workplace. To achieve your goals, you got to keep trying, knocking on the door, making phone calls, writing emails, be persuasive, make the person whom you’re negotiating with understand that it’s far more in their interest than it’s in yours.
No wonder that the former BBC Newsnight booker is now a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics. Negotiating is an art, and the Netflix film shows that Sam McAlister is a masterful artist of it.
Portraying Sam McAlister’s efforts and hard work in attaining the infamous BBC Newsnight interview also does justice – it does justice to the hardworking teams and individuals working behind the scenes that make journalism happen, that make broadcasts happen, that create historic moments of television.
The Netflix movie, based on Sam McAlister’s book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, also features her fellow team members from BBC Newsnight, including Emily Maitlies, played by Gillian Anderson.
Gillian Anderson has done an excellent job in becoming Emily Maitlis, not just a superb job at playing her but literally becoming the former BBC Newsnight presenter. The voice, the hair, the make up, mannerisms, the walking style and the clothing literally made Gillian Anderson look as if she is the real Emily Maitlis. A job so well done that if Emily Maitlis had moved on from BBC Newsnight without announcing it, they could have literally hired Gillian Anderson to work as Emily Maitlies presenting the show, without anyone ever noticing it – ever!
There is, however, a bit that I wasn’t a huge fan of. Far too much of the film was dedicated to the interview itself, to what Prince Andrew, played by Rufus Sewell, said to Emily Maitlies during the Newsnight interview. We all know what happened during the interview, everyone knows that, the whole world knows that.
It would have been much better to cut the main interview bit to its most minimum in terms of duration. To dedicate far more time to what’s happening behind the scenes because that’s where the real value of this superbly cast drama lies: revealing what happens behind the camera lens to make the content happen that takes place in front of the camera lens.
Loved the drama so much that Netflix should base more movies on Sam McAlister’s book Scoops, available here, because it’s an insightful view of what it takes to create historic moments of television.
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Reviewed by Muhammed Raza Hussain | Editor of www.NewsLeaf.com | Extra-Mile Winner of the Newsquest Young Reporter Scheme (2014) | Talent for Writing certificate by Young Writers (2015) | Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Sociology (2019) | Social media officer for Gina Miller’s True & Fair Party | Social media PR and political communication | Instagram: @raza.hussain01
