Scoop! Netflix Friday 5th April A prince among men

[TheIcecreamManCometh]

This looks good.
Gillian Anderson plays Emily Maitlis.
Billie Piper plays the producer Sam McAlister but wears a blonde wig in the trailer I've seen.
‘She was an unsung hero’: Billie Piper on playing producer Sam McAlister in a new drama about Prince Andrew’s Newsnight fiasco | Billie Piper | The Guardian

Yeah, maybe there was a bit of poetic licence, particularly when it came to giving Emily Maitlis advice about how to conduct the interview, but it’s impossible to be sure.

I think maitlis has said they gamed all kinds of questions and she worked hard to know all the material. So possibly SM was one of those in the process.

it was a fascinating character study in why people like Andrew become like they are. Boris Johnson is the same. Not challenged enough in life, as a teen, young adult or whatever, and then become convinced they should be able to say anything and be believed. A childish/stunted narcissism.

I really enjoyed it.
Love Rufus
Love Gillian A
Love Colin Swindells (he's great in everything)
Love Keely Hawes but she kept making me think she was Kate M - something about that very clipped delivery.

I also love Romola G but she seems born to lead a production. It's odd seeing her in support - but fair enough I know she has kids - I just love her.

What they captured is the pressure on Emily Maitlis to succeed. Very scary for her however experienced. I thought she was so brave.

I watched it but I didn't really think there was all that much of a story there beyond what we already knew. I was really impressed by the transformations of Gillian and Rufus though.

I watched it and loved it. Thought it was very well cast. I think I read Rufus Sewell regretted taking the role. No idea why, other than leaving people with the impression that was his actual flabby arse I thought he did very well with the DOY mannerisms.

I watched this Ystd and enjoyed it.

Prince Andrew's arrogance was off the scale, he genuinely thought people would believe and like him!

He's a despicable man and I suspect what we know about him is the tip of the iceberg.

yes me as well. I never watched the original interview but the film seemed to just be over egging what at the end of the day was a one trick pony.

The book was called "Scoops" and talks about other interviews that the author secured for Newsnight, not just this one. It could have been interesting to have a 10 minute montage at the beginning of other high profile interviewees!

We watched it tonight and also watched the real thing when it aired.

I think the show really gave context to PA's old-school aristocratic arrogance that this was just something the lumpen proletariat would get over as soon as the next big story came along.

He really deserved this rinsing!

Watched it. Good performances from the actors, but, yes, didn't think it added much. There was the tired old trope of "people like us" (honest British proletariat) against "people like them" (out-of-touch posh people).

I liked the bit of the interview where PA said he couldn't have been he who bought VG a drink because he didn't even know where the bar was"!

It's that long counter with lots of bottles behind it - not hard to spot in most nightclubs - it's where they make their money after all!

Genuine question though:
Would he not have had security detail wherever he went, including clubbing?
I assume they have to sign NDAs but couldn't someone have corroborated if he hadn't been there?
It was established he had definitely been there 3 days later for a party.
However, Shukri Walker claimed she had seen him on the night in question.
He'd been there before with Fergie and allegedly met Koo Stark there too.
But given he's been shown to be a tightwad, would he really have bought a round in? Would he have been getting in drinks at all?
His equerries stated he, like JE, never drank so wouldn't have been drinking cocktails.

His answers were incredibly odd. The whole thing is odd. Including members of the royal family having snaps of themselves taken on a borrowed kodak camera of their arm around a complete stranger. Then their 'alibi' being 'I don't know where the bar is, and I don't sweat'. Rather like Prince Harry with his 'It's not racism, it's unconscious bias' round-about answers with the interviewer just looking baffled! Do they actually get coaching in how to waffle without shedding any light on the subject whatsever??

I thought the body guard records supposedly went missing? They would have shown where Andrew was at particular times, because the body guards were with him.

Just watched this.

I thought it started poorly with the seasoned pap photographer coming up with the "brainwave" of running around the other side to get his photo of JE and PA .

Anyway, all these things seem to have people living and working in near darkness, outside is the most miserable January day grainy ness and people's apartments are always High Industrial designed interiors. Where was that ridiculous secret abandoned warehouse office where they were gaming the interview in Broadcasting House ?

I also got pissed off that Netflix (I don't watch it very often) doesn't show the credits properly. I went to see them on IMDB and learned that that was Mia Threpleton aka Kate Winslet's daughter playing the poor maid upbraided by PA for not getting the teddies in the right place.

Wasn't that what he said in his interview, about why he didn't notice very young girls milling around ? He more or less said that ' people like him' don't notice staff, because they are just 'there'. So the inference being maids/underage prostitutes, what's the difference?

He'd surely still know where the bar was though!

Geographically aye, it's supposedly a small two-roomed club with a VIP bit where a previous owner might have sat down with royalty. But...whether Air Miles Andy/Stayed-With-A-Nonce-Cos-It-Was-Convenient Prince has ever paid for a round in his life, is another story.
So his denial might mean he's always been in the VIP bit or dancefloor with minions/admirers/friends getting the drinks in because he couldn't possibly find the bar/go up to it as he's so important. That's for staff/commoners not a Very Important Prince like himself. Similar puzzlement/confusion as to 10 people not being a party as a party for him, is 100 guests odd.

Yes, but you can watch the interview itself for that. Maitlis pushes back on that point.

What I mean is, does it add anything to have made up scenes where mum gives daughter advice about what "people like us" should expect from life? Or am I completely wrong on this and everybody (not just PA) goes around talking about "the likes of us" like it's still the 1880's?

That's how Sam truly felt though about working at the Beeb.
She was first in the family to go to university.
Comes from a working class family.
Single Mum.
Considered herself to be an underdog.
Left the BBC as was given the ultimatum between continuing her booker job or being allowed to write the book.
Producer of Scoop: she’s not the sort of person that you would expect to find in a BBC office, let alone on BBC Newsnight.

I have no idea how accurate all that is, old boys' club/Oxbridge etc but she started there in 2011

We could see all that from the drama - not need to spell it out! Also, who's going to speak to a booker from the BBC who has published a book bragging about her 'Scoops'? They'd never get another interviewee again! I'm not saying she's wrong to publish the book - but the BBC is right, she had to make a choice. Nothing to do with what family you come from or where you went to university (BTW you don't have to be posh to go to Oxford University!) All this just looks like her own reverse snobbery to me. Although, tbf, I haven't read the book.

What came across in the PA interview was his skewed values. He hesitated to call a woman a liar, clearly thinking that would make him look like a cad. So said something like: 'Now, I've been wracking my brains ... could I have had sex with a teenager not much older than my own daughter and just blanked it out of my mind' (Well, I would b**dy well hope not!) 'Well ... no because for a man having sex ... you have to take positive action' (Whereas us women just lie back and can't remember whose dick has been in there! 😂) He'd have been better to say she'd lied!

You said:

"What I mean is, does it add anything to have made up scenes where mum gives daughter advice about what "people like us" should expect from life?"

I was responding to that.
Her Mum may well have had those conversations.
Not sure why you think they were made up? (SM was exec producer on this, whether that meant script approval, I don't know but I'm not sure that line was artistic licence.

Probably because I am working class, council estate born, first to go to university myself and have recently had similar conversations with DD (that there are people who judge us for where we live, what we look like, that I'm a single mum etc and to ignore the wankers...)

It may have been laid on with a trowel for dramatic purposes, so you root for the protagonist but I could and can relate to it.

We could see all that from the drama - no need to spell it out!
Rude. But yes, I did need to spell it out seeing as you were seemed to be questioning whether there is still a class divide/them and us.
I believe there is. My life experience and profession tells me that levelling up has a long, long way to go. The tories demonise the poor. Those with power and wealth, with such a huge poverty gap, look down on the rest of us.

She took voluntary redundancy/they were making cuts anyway and I think you are correct on that point - if she was well-known for her scoops, and that particular interview, it would make booking untenable. I think she was hoping for a promotion/pay rise and was also miffed that other journalists had been able to write books/memoirs without the ultimatum. I do agree with you though on that.