Network Scoop

This 1987 television play, adapted from Evelyn Waughs barbed comic novel, centres on a naive 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 papers 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 worlds press, tangles with big business, and falls hopelessly in love for the first time.Inspired by Evelyn Waughs 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 Beasts opportunistically war-hungry publisher, Lord Copper Denholm Elliott plays his timorous foreign Lees meer over de Network Scoop van network in de productgroep entertainment