Anderson and Sewell star in ‘Scoop’
Fans of Netflix’s “The Crown” might gravitate toward “Scoop,” a 2024 drama based on real events. Also streaming on Netflix, it might appeal to those who felt that the last season of that expensive period drama was a bit of a bust, if not a cop-out.
In focusing on the ghost of Diana and the emergence of William and Kate as the faces of the family firm, “The Crown” avoided the real scandal at the heart of the monarchy, Prince Andrew’s relationship with accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Scoop” more than compensates for this omission, focusing on a 2019 interview that Andrew conducted with correspondent Emily Maitlis on the BBC’s “Newsnight” program, only months after Epstein was found dead. Andrew’s evasive performance went down in history as one of the more disastrous attempts at spin control from a royal family already seen as tone deaf.
Can a single television interview propel a featurelength drama? Fans of the 2008 film “Frost/Nixon” certainly think so. And of course, the whole Diana Charles melodrama was inflamed by the Princess of Wales’ decision to sit down with journalist Martin Bashir in 1995.
“Scoop” also arrives scant weeks after the royal family’s recent mishandling of news surrounding Kate Middleton’s health.
Look for Gillian Anderson as Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as Andrew. “Crown” fans may recall Anderson’s turn as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in that series. Sewell has recently appeared in another Netflix effort, “The Diplomat,” co-starring Keri Russell as the American ambassador to the Court of St. James.
The story is given extra juice by Billie Piper as producer Sam McAlister, whose flashier dress style and tabloid sensibilities seem to shock the more refined Maitlis. McAlister’s ability to speak frankly in the cosseted prince’s presence also helps rattle him into cooperation.
As mentioned in an earlier column, this has been a bit of a week for getting deep in the weeds of U.K. politics and media. The British series “Mr Bates Vs. the Post Office,” a true-life David and Goliath story starring Toby Jones, just broadcast the first of its four episodes on PBS’s “Masterpiece.
› I recently saw a quote from Gary Oldman, the esteemed actor at the heart of Apple TV+’s “Slow Horses,” arguably the best show airing or streaming at this moment. Oldman observed that “Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay.” Something to think about when watching “Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise” (10 p.m., Freeform, TV-14), debuting tonight.
› An artist (Dirk Bogarde) comes to the aid of a visitor (Jean Simmons) at the 1899 Paris World’s Fair who wakes up to discover that both her brother and the room that he rented have vanished in the night in the 1950 thriller “So Long at the Fair” (10 p.m., TCM, TV-PG). Look for Honor Blackman, later famous for “The Avengers,” “Goldfinger” and “Jason and the Argonauts.”