Scoop

This 1987 television play, adapted from Evelyn Waugh’s barbed comic novel, centres on a naïve young newspaper columnist, William Boot, who is caught up in an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Each week, Boot writes a nature column for The Daily Beast entitled ‘Lush Places’, featuring detailed observations from the depths of his country estate. All is fine until the paper’s foreign editor confuses him with a war reporter, and the bewildered Boot is dispatched to the East African republic of Ishmaelia to cover a major political crisis. Once there, he encounters the manipulative power of the world’s press, tangles with big business, and falls hopelessly in love for the first time. Inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s own experience as a war reporter, Scoop aims a satirical spear at an array of Fleet Street archetypes

Starring Denholm Eliot, Donald Pleasence & Michael Maloney.

Buy the Region 2 DVD (UK & Europe) of Scoop
Buy the Region 1 DVD (US & Canada) of Scoop

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William Boyd’s Scoop is a nostalgic cartoonish pleasure with some nice sharp edges…all done with loving gusto and infectious enjoyment.

Philip Horne, The Telegraph