{"id":49036,"date":"2024-04-05T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2019495"},"modified":"2024-04-05T11:07:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T09:07:56","slug":"who-is-sam-mcalister-billie-pipers-scoop-character-explained","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/who-is-sam-mcalister-billie-pipers-scoop-character-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Sam McAlister? Billie Piper\u2019s Scoop character explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

McAlister played a crucial role in making the infamous Prince Andrew interview happen. <\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 05 April 2024 at 08:00 AM<\/p>

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The first of two dramatisations of the infamous Prince Andrew Newsnight interview has just arrived on Netflix \u2013 with Scoop<\/a> now available to watch globally on the streamer.<\/p>\n

Whereas the upcoming Prime Video miniseries A Very Royal Scandal will focus on the build-up to the interview from the perspective of Emily Maitlis, this film is told through the lens of another woman who played an instrumental role: Sam McAlister.<\/p>\n

McAlister is played in the film by Billie Piper, who is joined in the cast<\/a> by a number of other recognisable faces, including Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew, Gillian Anderson as Maitlis and Keeley Hawes as Prince Andrew\u2019s private secretary Amanda Thirsk.<\/p>\n

But who exactly is McAlister? Read on for everything you need to know.<\/p>

Who is Sam McAlister? Billie Piper\u2019s Scoop character explained<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Sam McAlister is a trained barrister and former Newsnight producer and guest booker who played an instrumental role in making the infamous Prince Andrew interview happen.<\/p>\n
As is seen in the film, McAlister took part in negotiations with Prince Andrew\u2019s private secretary Amanda Thirsk to bring about the interview after first convincing her Newsnight colleagues it was a lead worth pursuing.<\/p>\n
In total, she worked on Newsnight for 12 years until 2021, when she took voluntary redundancy, and went on to write a memoir titled Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC\u2019s Most Shocking Interviews., which was published in 2022.<\/p>\n
Among the other interviews she helped to bring about were exclusives with Stormy Daniels, Sean Spicer, Brigitte H\u00f6ss, Steven Seagal, Mel Greig and Julian Assange.<\/p>\n
In addition to writing, she now also works as a professional speaker \u2013 and gave a TEDx Talk earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Speaking in the film\u2019s press notes, producer Hilary Salmon said of McAlister: \u201cSam is a force of nature. She\u2019s larger than life \u2013 and neither of those two descriptions are clich\u00e9s in Sam\u2019s case. She\u2019s not the sort of person that you would expect to find in a BBC office, let alone on BBC Newsnight, this serious engine of news.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she\u2019s also that kind of fish out of water figure, who nevertheless is the truth teller \u2013 she was the one who said, \u2018We need this interview, it\u2019s going to be good. It\u2019s going to be big. It might feel like celebrity journalism to you but actually, it\u2019s important and it will be massive. And she was right.\u201d<\/p>\n
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