Netflix legal drama Anatomy of a Scandal is now streaming on Netflix, just in time for viewing over the Easter weekend.
Big Little Lies series creator David E Kelley has adapted Sarah Vaughan’s bestselling book, with an all-star cast featuring Sienna Miller, Rupert Friend, Naomi Scott, and Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery.
In the series, James Whitehouse (Rupert Friend), a charming Tory Cabinet minister and Old Etonian married to his university sweetheart Sophie (Miller), is accused of rape by a parliamentary aide (played by Scott) with whom he had been having an affair.
The official synopsis from Netflix reads: “A psychological thriller and gripping courtroom drama, the series infiltrates Britain’s elite through personal and political scandal, where the truth lies between justice and privilege.”
But while the series was based on the fictional book of the same name, Sarah Vaughan’s bestseller was in fact inspired by two real-life British news stories.
Is Anatomy of a Scandal based on a true story?
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The book Anatomy of a Scandal – on which the Netflix series is based – was inspired by two real-life news stories that hit British newspaper headlines.
Speaking to The Guardian, author Sarah Vaughan cited both the 2004 sacking of Boris Johnson from the Conservative front-bench after lying about an extramarital affair, and the 2014 release of footballer Ched Evans after serving jail time for a rape conviction – the conviction was later quashed and he was found not guilty at a retrial.
Vaughan stressed that Boris Johnson is “not in any way James [the character played by Rupert Friend]”, before adding: “It was his approach to the truth that interested me. As Theresa May put it in the Commons recently, either he ‘didn’t read the rules, or [he] didn’t understand them, or [he] didn’t think they applied to [him]’.”
Or, as James puts it in Anatomy of a Scandal: “I told the truth, near enough. Or the truth as I saw it.”
On her personal website, the author described how the book “draws on [her] experience as a political correspondent, court reporter, and student at Oxford to explore power, privilege, and consent”.
In an interview with Exploring Exeter, she spoke of the Ched Evans case, which “merged” in her subconscious with her own “MeToo experiences” during her twenties, when she worked as a news reporter.
“I actually dreamed up the plot after being perturbed by coverage of a rape case,” she said.
“It was back in November 2013, and the footballer Ched Evans was trying to appeal against his conviction for rape. I was upset by the way in which the alleged rape victim was depicted by commentators and started thinking about how horrific it must be to summon up the courage to come forward with a rape conviction and then have doubt cast on that in the papers and in court.
“I also started thinking about what we’d now call our #MeToo experiences, though we didn’t have that terminology at the time, and how I didn’t want my then-8-year-old daughter to have to experience some of the things I had as I learned to navigate sexual politics in my early to mid-twenties.”
She continued: “The main plot points came to me in the dream, so I obviously merged concerns I’d had about power, perceptions of truth, privilege – all seen at Oxford and in Westminster – and consent.”
Looking for something else to watch? Check out our guide to the best TV series on Netflix and best movies on Netflix, visit our TV Guide, or find out about upcoming new TV shows 2020.
If you want to read Sarah Vaughan’s Anatomy of a Scandal, head over to Amazon now.