Scoop

Had high expectations and was expecting something along the lines of She Said, Bombshell or Spotlight. It just didn't hit the mark.

A fabulous and highly experienced cast did their best, but not sure the script or direction did much to recommend the film. Gillian Anderson was great, as always, as was Rufus Sewell, but there was just something missing for me; something I can't quite point my finger on. It lacked audience empathy for the producer to find, seek and get the story up. In fairness, they tried with the usual cinematic narrative tools but just didn't work.

I work in PR and media and know how hard and neigh impossible securing that interview would have been and the internal dynamics and politics within the Palace pr machine. But you just don't feel the challenge or struggle.

Definitely enjoyable but not outstanding.

Yet again, Gillian Anderson absolutely nails her character, Emily, the way she did with Thatcher. The expressions during the interview with the Prince were so uncanny, you almost do a double-take to see if they'd spliced in actual footage! Billy was good as Sam, although her performance and the script didn't quite capture Sam's humour and her strengths that you can watch on longer interviews she's done. Rufus did an adequate job as Prince Andrew, certainly with replicating the trainwreck interview sequence but I feel they could have touched on a bit more of his repulsiveness - however, the story is, afterall, from Sam's point of view. When he gets out of the bath to check his phone, after the interview had just aired, it would have been a nice touch to see who had left the message ~ "Mummy".

I like the way it's shown how out of touch the palace crew was, especially before the interview aired when they were saying Andrew did "wonderful."

I think it's just a fine watch, nothing mind-blowing. But it's interesting to get a peek of the supposed behind the scenes of that infamous Prince Andrew interview.

It's not some edge-of-your-seat drama though, which I think is great because not everything needs dramatization. Since it's based on a book of a real event, with some creative changes, don't expect any crazy MI6 agents busting in to shut the interview down or anything like that. It keeps things relatively grounded despite the subject matter.

The story of how Emily Maitlis came to interview Prince Andrew.

It doesn't exactly sound like a catchy plot, and indeed I thought it was an extremely bizarre recent event to dramatise, but it works.

The BBC hasn't exactly been covered in glory in recent times, but this scoop was seen as something of a revelation, the first time I and many others decided to tune into Newsnight, a show that's died away over the years.

It was an excruciating interview to watch at the time, it's one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen, that scene was perfectly recreated, Sewell and Anderson were both terrific, quality acting. I thought Billie Piper did a cracking job here too.

I'm not sure whether this film will have a broad appeal or not, the storyline is a rather curious one, but if you enjoy quality acting, try it out.

7/10.

This movie is perhaps meant to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the BBC, especially the Newsnight programme, and show why journalism matters. But it didn't quite hit the mark, lacking the passion and grit we saw in the cracking movie 'She Said'.

The important story gets overshadowed as they try to make it more entertaining than hard-hitting.

While the intentions were decent, the movie doesn't go deep enough into what real journalism involves and the challenges the industry faces in chasing truth. It ends up feeling a bit underwhelming and surface-level when it could've packed more of a punch.

Not bad, but doesn't quite nail that gripping, thought-provoking experience you'd want from a film tackling such a weighty topic.