Scoop

A news programme's producer spends months making calls, writing letters and talking to the palace. The aim is a single interview: Prince Andrew speaking on camera about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The palace eventually agrees. The film is about how that interview was obtained and what happened on the day. The subject is not the scandal but how the interview was constructed as an institutional victory. The producer is not taken seriously in the newsroom; she is treated as an outsider by class, and precisely for that reason she builds the relationship nobody else could. The film puts this at the centre openly. The form has two halves: the preparation and the interview. The interview section uses the questions of the actual broadcast almost verbatim and the camera shoots the room like a fight; who is winning is read off the faces. The source is the producer Sam McAlister's own book. The broadcast went out in 2019 and the prince withdrew from royal duties afterwards. The film was released on Netflix in 2024, and another production about the same events followed shortly. Gillian Anderson plays the presenter, Billie Piper the producer and Rufus Sewell the prince. Philip Martin directs. Who it is for: viewers who like journalism drama and tension built on a single scene. Who it is not for: anyone expecting new information about the case; the film stays inside what is known.