Scoop is lastly streaming on Netflix. The royal drama chronicles the nail-biting behind-the-scenes occasions main as much as Prince Andrew’s notorious BBC Newsnight interview in 2019. However how a lot does Scoop keep true to what occurred in actual life?

Directed by Philip Martin (The Crown), Scoop follows journalist Sam McAlister, the interview booker for the BBC present Newsnight, who secured the notorious interview with Prince Andrew. The film is predicated on the first-hand account of McAlister, who chronicled the occasions in her 2022 memoir Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the Most Stunning Interviews.

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McAlister, portrayed within the movie by English actress Billie Piper, informed Netflix’s Tudum that Piper “encapsulated that blend between seriousness and the lighter aspect of my character.” She continued, “To look at her actually remodel, change her voice, [and wear] the extraordinary wig, my nails, the make-up, the roster of black clothes — it’s precisely the identical. So meta and surreal.”

Within the drama, Gillian Anderson performs British Journalist Emily Maitlis, Rufus Sewell portrays Prince Andrew, and Keeley Hawes stars as his then-private secretary, Amanda Thirsk. So, what’s the true story behind Netflix’s Scoop? Learn on to search out out.

Is Netflix’s Scoop Primarily based On A True Story?

Sure, Netflix’s movie Scoop is predicated on the true story of the BBC’s interview with Prince Andrew. Though the movie is dramatized, Scoop carefully follows what actually occurred main as much as the dialog, and it relied on McAlister’s memoir as its major supply. The movie’s producers additionally “meticulously researched the occasions on the BBC and Buckingham Palace throughout this time,” in accordance with Netflix.

Nonetheless, there are a number of variations between the movie and the precise occasions in 2019. For instance, in contrast to within the film, McAlister spent 13 months constructing a relationship with Thirsk till she acquired that remaining sure.

Who’re Sam McAlister and Emily Maitlis?

Sam McAlister was a felony lawyer earlier than turning into an interview producer and visitor booker for the BBC’s information program Newsnight. In the meantime, Emily Maitlis is a British Journalist who joined the BBC in 2001. McAlister left the company in July 2021, whereas Maitlis parted methods in 2022.

McAllister was making an attempt to rearrange an interview with Prince Andrew on the BBC information program for greater than a yr, in accordance with The New York Instances. She lastly met with the royal’s personal secretary on the time, Amanda Thirsk, who mentioned there may very well be no questions on Epstein.

Circumstances modified in August 2019, when Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail, the place he was being held on federal intercourse trafficking and intercourse conspiracy costs. After that, McAlister and Thirsk began to debate the necessity for Prince Andrew to elucidate his relationship to Epstein.

Finally, Maitlis — the lead anchor for Newsnight — carried out the interview with Prince Andrew (which you’ll watch in full right here). Maitlis now hosts the day by day podcast “The Information Brokers” on Main Britain’s Dialog (LBC) Radio.

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Why Was Prince Andrew’s BBC Interview So Controversial?

Within the explosive interview, Prince Andrew mentioned his friendship with financier and convicted intercourse offender Jefferey Epstein and denied the allegations that he had intercourse with a 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre.

In 2015, Giuffre introduced a defamation case in opposition to Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, alleging that the pair had sex-trafficked her beginning in 2000 when she was often known as Virginia Roberts. She claimed that Epstein pressured her to have intercourse with Prince Andrew in his New York mansion, in London, and on Epstein’s personal island within the U.S. Virgin Islands when she was 17 in 2001.

Nonetheless, the allegation was thrown out and struck from the report by a U.S. federal decide, who mentioned it was “immaterial and impertinent to the central declare.” It wasn’t till 2019 when Giuffre’s allegations in opposition to Andrew had been made public, and the paperwork from the 2015 defamation case had been unsealed.

Maybe probably the most stunning moments from the interview (there are fairly a number of) was when Prince Andrew mentioned that he didn’t remorse his friendship with Epstein as a result of it led to “alternatives” that had been “really very helpful.”

After Epstein pleaded responsible in 2008 and served jail time for soliciting prostitution, Prince Andrew was additionally noticed in Central Park with Epstein. He mentioned that he stayed on the intercourse offender’s Higher East Aspect mansion as a result of “it was a handy place to remain.” Moreover, when requested by Maitlis concerning the underage women photographed leaving the home, Prince Andrew responded, “So far as I used to be conscious, they had been employees.”

Maitlis additionally confirmed Prince Andrew {a photograph} of himself together with his arm round Guiffre’s waist. He responded, “That’s me, however whether or not that’s my hand … I’ve merely no recollection of the {photograph} ever being taken.”

The prince additionally supplied weird alibis in response to Giuffre’s claims. For instance, he mentioned he couldn’t have sweated whereas dancing with Guiffre at a nightclub in London as a result of, on that day, he had taken his daughter to get pizza. He additionally claimed that he “didn’t sweat on the time” due to a “peculiar medical situation.”

Following the interview, Prince Andrew acquired immense backlash from the general public, British and worldwide media. On November 20, 2019, he introduced that he could be resigning from public duties. He was consequently stripped of his army titles and the correct to be referred to as “His Royal Highness.”

“I proceed to unequivocally remorse my ill-judged affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein. His suicide has left many unanswered questions, notably for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everybody who has been affected and desires some type of closure,” Prince Andrew wrote in an announcement on the time. “I can solely hope that, in time, they’ll be capable to rebuild their lives. After all, I’m prepared to assist any acceptable regulation enforcement company with their investigations, if required.”

In February 2022, Prince Andrew settled the sexual assault lawsuit and paid an undisclosed quantity to Giuffre and her charity to assist victims’ rights, in accordance with BBC. He additionally mentioned he “by no means meant to malign Ms Giuffre’s character” and he acknowledged she had “suffered each as a longtime sufferer of abuse and on account of unfair public assaults.”

Scoop is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer under.