Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: This 1987 television play, adapted from Evelyn Waugh's barbed comic novel, centres on a naïve young newspaper columnist, William Boot (Michael Maloney), 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. Boasting a venerable cast, the play stars Donald Pleasence as the Beast's opportunistically war-hungry publisher, Lord Copper; Denholm Elliott plays his timorous foreign editor, Salter; and Jack Shepherd is Corker, the roving hack who rarely misses a good story - factual or otherwise. Herbert Lom and Michael Hordern also appear in this excellent drama, which is directed by Gavin Millar (Foyle's War), produced by Sue Birtwistle (Cranford), and scripted by internationally acclaimed writer and journalist William Boyd. ...Scoop
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Britain at its best. Waugh's story as played by the best British actors there are. TV movie handled with class, a definite must watch for fans of Pleasence (a wonderful role here as the head of a newspaper) or classic 20th century British literature lovers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This 1987 television film illustrates, not the first time, the difficulty of translating the sharply satirical - and essentially literary - style of Evelyn Waugh into a visual medium. What often lies so effectively on the printed page can lose some impact off it. That said, this is a decent version of Waugh's satire on Fleet Street and the cut-throat competition for 'hot news' (whether true or false) waged by the world's press. Michael Maloney is ideal as the mild-mannered nature columnist William Boot, who is mistakenly sent by the London Daily Beast (proprietor Lord Copper) to cover 'a promising little war' in the ramshackle East African state of Ishmaelia. There is excellent support from a cast which includes Donald Pleasence, Michael Hordern, Denholm Elliott and Herbert Lom. Good production values (with extensive location shooting in Morocco) but a crisper tempo would have been necessary to warrant a higher rating. A brave try, nonetheless.
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The producer of this tele-movie adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's satire on the press, the usually-reliable Sue Birtwistle, has assembled a name cast and spent dollops of ITV money on props and locations, but none of it can make this lame duck fly. It is so bad, so tedious, you almost expect it to come to a creaking halt at any moment and for the cast to troop off for a smoke. William Boyd's screenplay - and he is a name novelist himself - manages to turn satire into something nearer documentary, as it goes in search of laughs without a clue where to find them. There is a place called Laku in this story which does not exist - the word means "I don't know" in the local language. This whole production is the Laku of 1980s British television and should be consigned to the dust heap. As if it matters, the DVD offers no extras, no subtitles... and costs double the price of any number of worthwhile video products. Be warned.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Film & TV > Television > Drama
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
