Netflix drama Scoop has been likened to political sitcom The Thick Of It by critics who have commended its “inescapably absurd” scenes and flashes of “black comic horror”.
The Holiday actor Rufus Sewell stars as the Duke of York while Gillian Anderson portrays Emily Maitlis in the film, which delves into the story behind the infamous Newsnight interview about Andrew’s friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Daily Telegraph film critic Tim Robey awarded it five stars out of five, hailing the layers of drama which he feels sets it apart from previous royal dramas like The Queen and The Crown.
Robey said: “It’s no laughing matter, obviously, but aspects of the whole saga are still inescapably absurd, and maximally milked in a borderline-The-Thick-of-It fashion without going overboard.
“The director, Philip Martin, plays everything right to the cusp – where you clamp hand to mouth, aghast at remembering that this train wreck actually happened, and irresistibly compelled to relive it.”
The film, also starring Billie Piper and Keeley Hawes, has received mixed reviews and while BBC critic Nicholas Barber praised the acting, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described the performances as laborious.
Bradshaw offered the film two stars out of five, describing it as “laboriously acted and distinctly self-admiring, self-mythologising drama about the media, the royals and the media royals”.
The critic said there was one “spark” in the moment Andrew is shown humiliating a female staff member for mishandling his collection of soft toys.
“It’s a flash of black-comic horror and Sewell has something to get his teeth into as an actor,” he said.
“Otherwise, the drama is smothered by its own overwhelming sense of importance.”
Barber said the film lacked “a bit of boldness, irreverence, imagination and depth”.
“It’s a brisk, well-acted and solidly built newsroom drama, but there is plenty of scope for the Amazon series (A Very Royal Scandal) to be better”, he said.
Among those hailing Piper’s performance as Sam McAlister, the Newsnight producer who sealed the interview, was The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey who said the actress offered an “excellent performance”.
Elsewhere, The Hollywood Reporter film critic Leslie Felperin said: “Scoop feels more like another example of Netflix feasting on the British royal family’s dirty laundry now that The Crown has gone as far into the present as it can go (or dares to go).”
Following the Newsnight broadcast in November 2019 and the furore over Andrew’s friendship with Epstein, the duke stepped down from public life.
The interview was dubbed a “car crash”, with commentators questioning his responses and condemning his unsympathetic tone and lack of remorse over his friendship with the sex offender Epstein.
Maitlis has already served as an executive producer of a Channel 4 documentary about the interview.
Another drama about the interview, an Amazon series called A Very Royal Scandal starring Michael Sheen as Andrew and Ruth Wilson as Maitlis, is also in the works.
