Netflix‘s new film Scoop is technically its own thing — a brisk look at the events that led up to Prince Andrew‘s disastrous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 — but it also feels in conversation with a larger crisis unfolding for the royal family in 2024. Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, the British monarchy has been afflicted by internal feuds, tragic health prognoses, and, worst of all, a recent PR disaster wherein the world began speculating wildly over the “disappearance” of the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton. (The Duchess of Cambridge finally broke her months-long silence on March 22, 2024, revealing she had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer.)
All in all, Scoop underscores a concern raised by the series finale of Netflix’s other major royal drama, The Crown. In the final moments of Peter Morgan’s otherwise glossy and glorious depiction of the Windsors, Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) opines to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton), “Those that come after you are not remotely ready to take over.” Sure both The Crown and Scoop are dramas, not documentaries, but so far they both seem to be eerily correct about one thing: the current royal family isn’t prepared to deal with the challenges of ruling in 2024, specifically — as Scoop shows — because their comms teams suck.
Netflix’s Scoop is based on Sam McAlister’s 2022 book, Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews. McAlister, played in the film by Billie Piper, worked for years as an editor and talent booker for BBC’s Newsnight. Netflix’s film reveals how McAlister managed to first get a foothold in with the Duke of York’s staff by replying to an innocuous press blast about his “Pitches at the Palace” program, only to turn the relationship into an opportunity to book one of the most explosive interviews in recent memory.
As Scoop shows, McAlister goes into a meeting with Prince Andrew’s aide Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes) fully aware that the Duke of York has an icky public persona. “Randy Andy” might be the Queen’s favorite son, but his close ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein further pollute the Palace’s image. When Epstein is finally arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019, McAlister uses the situation to pitch an interview to Thirsk that will show Prince Andrew’s side of the story. Thirsk undermines the efforts of a rival PR expert in the Prince’s office to book the interview, which ultimately becomes a disaster as Prince Andrew’s bizarre alibis and shocking lack of shame indict him in the court of public opinion. He would be immediately relieved of official royal duties.
The most shocking part of Scoop, however, is how ignorant the Palace’s PR machine is about its clients’ own shortcomings. Besides Amanda Thirsk’s naive adoration of her charming boss, there’s a haunting moment where the BBC team worries the Palace could kill the interview. Donal McCabe (Jon De Ville), a heavy hitter from the Queen’s own press office, sneaks in to record the audio of the interview. However, the royal family’s comms team doesn’t think there’s anything amiss with the final product. Prince Andrew’s debacle of an interview goes to air without a shrug. In fact, a gloating Duke of York happily gives reporter Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) a tour of Buckingham Palace. He’s blissfully unaware that she’s just shanked him by allowing him to fall on his own sword.
Scoop never confirms or denies if Prince Andrew was indeed guilty of raping an underage Virginia Giuffre, but it does condemn the royal family’s internal comms teams as incredibly out of their depth. Not only does every senior royal have their own particular office working for them, and only their interests, but within these offices, backstabbing, subterfuge, and shenanigans are going on. When presented with this level of incompetence, it should be no wonder that the so-called “Firm” lost the plot in early 2024.
Right now, the British royal family is on its back heels. Both King Charles III and Princess Catherine have been diagnosed with cancer and both royals handled this personal trial in very different ways. Charles III’s team led with transparency first about his prostate procedure and then with his cancer diagnosis. This not only inspired a wave of Britons visiting their doctors, but explained to the masses why Charles III would be out of the public eye for some time. Meanwhile, Kate Middleton was not only abruptly pulled out of public appearances for a mystery surgery, but there were a number of missteps from Kensington Palace’s comms team, crescendoing with a Photoshop fail that cast the legitimacy of every image and brief from the royals into doubt. Of course, we want both royals to heal in privacy, but as public figures, the disparity between their PR strategies bears scrutiny.
If The Crown‘s version of Prince Philip is correct, and the current royals are wholly unprepared, Scoop suggests it’s not just a reflection of the royals themselves. It’s also a PR problem. Until the royal family can clean house and get comms experts who know what they’re doing in our 21st century world, they’re going to have a much more difficult time explaining to the populace why they’re worth keeping around.
