Netflix film “Scoop”, which was released a few weeks ago, tries to give us a close look into the real-life story behind one of the most notorious TV interviews during last several years. Although I have no idea on how much that real-life story is actually fictionalized here, the result is a solid and entertaining drama about good professional journalism, which is surely something we need more than before these days.

As many of you know, everything began from a very questionable relationship between Prince Andrew of England (Rufus Sewell) and Jeffrey Epstein. According to Prince Andrew, he and Epstein were just close friends, but everyone started to suspect the worst when Epstein was arrested and then went to prison for his sex trafficking of young women around the late 2000s. When Prince Andrew and Epstein happened to be photographed together in the Central Park of New York City in 2010, there naturally came more suspicion upon Prince Andrew, and things got much worse for him later when Epstein was arrested again shortly before his sudden death in 2019.

The screenplay by director Peter Moffat and his co-writer Geoff Bussetil, which is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), mainly focuses on the diligent efforts of the production team at the BBC Two news and current affairs program Newsnight during that period. As BBC is about to go through a big downsizing, everyone is quite daunted and depressed to say the least, the chief producer, Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), and her staff members try to keep going as usual nonetheless, and that is when McAlister, who has worked as a guest producer, suggests the exclusive interview of Prince Andrew for drawing more viewers out there. Although that seems not so possible because he may not answer to all those hard questions involved with his close association with Epstein, McAlister believes that she can make the interview happen, and she becomes more determined after Epstein’s second arrest.

In case of Prince Andrew, he believes that things will go back to normal for him sooner or later, but his personal assistant Esme Wren (Romola Garai) does not think so at all as a person relatively less isolated from the outside world compared to her royal boss. Knowing well how he will be far less popular than before, she certainly needs to swing the public opinion on him to some degree at least, so she eventually agrees to set an interview between Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson), a prominent journalist who is the current presenter of Newsnight.

What follows next is not so far from the first half of Ron Howard’s riveting interview drama film “Frost/Nixon” (2008). On one side, Wren and other assistants try to prepare their royal boss for the upcoming interview where Maitlis will not pull any punch at all on his longtime association with Epstein. On the other side, Thirsk and her staff members busily prepare for what might become the scoop of the year, and McAlister is definitely willing to participate more, though she is also concerned about not being there for her young son that often because of her busy work schedule.

Clearly siding with McAlister and her several female colleagues, the movie occasionally makes some sharp points associated with the #MeToo Movement. We see a bit of how many young women were exploited by Epstein and a number of rich and powerful associates of his including President Bill Clinton for many years, and we are also reminded that we should really have sided more with Monica Lewinsky considering how her inappropriate sexual relationship with Clinton was quite unequal from the very beginning.

In the end, everything culminates to Maitlis’ one-hour interview with Prince Andrews at the Buckingham Palace, and the movie wisely does not try too much during this part, while adding some dry sense of wry humor. Shrewdly seeing that Prince Andrew himself is actually the biggest liability in this situation, McAlister advises Maitlis that she should simply make him talk more and more along the interview, and, this is surely not a spoiler for many of you, they actually get away with getting him exposed a lot more than expected in front of the camera, even though everything is constantly monitored by Wren and several her fellow staff members on the spot.

While they are the most prominent cast members in the bunch, Billie Piper and Gillian Anderson effortlessly slip themselves into the ensemble without being too showy, and Keeley Hawes and Romola Garai are also excellent in their substantial parts. In case of Rufus Sewell, whom I still fondly remember for appearing in Alex Proyas’ cult SF noir film “Dark City” (1998), he goes all the way for the pathetic obtuseness of a man who is clearly and hopelessly out of touch just like many of his royal family members, and you will definitely agree that Prince Andrew deserved all the public humiliation upon him.

In conclusion, “Scoop” is one of more enjoyable Netflix products during this year mainly thanks to its competent storytelling and several engaging performances. Although it does not reach to the level of several other recent acclaimed journalism drama films such as Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” (2015) or Maria Schrader’s “She Said” (2020), the movie does its reporting job fairly well, so I will not grumble for now.