The fifth season of Netflix’s The Crown dedicated an entire episode to Princess Diana’s shocking Panorama interview—an almost-hour-long extravaganza in which the then Princess of Wales opened up about the difficulties in her marriage and her struggles with her mental health to the now disgraced Martin Bashir. More than two decades later, it remains the most jaw-dropping royal interview ever to be broadcast on the BBC, but there is a close second: Prince Andrew’s startling conversation with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis in 2019, which saw the Duke of York discuss his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It should come as no surprise, then, that the streaming giant is now turning its lens on the latter with an explosive new feature film.
On February 7, 2023, it was confirmed that Philip Martin—whose previous directing credits include some of the most tense episodes from The Crown’s first season—would be helming Scoop, the gripping true story of how the infamous interview was secured. Its log line describes it as an “insider account of the inner workings of the palace and the BBC, twin bastions of the British establishment,” which will show how a female-led team landed “the scoop of the decade that led to catastrophic fall from grace.” It promises to cover the entire saga, from showing the journalists “navigating palace vetoes, to breaking through to Prince Andrew’s inner circle, the high stakes negotiations, intensity of rehearsals the interview itself.”
