There is a rich lineage of big-screen films about newspapers, from Ace in the Hole and All the President’s Men to Spotlight, but the cut and thrust of journalism is also no stranger to the small screen. And from the following suggestions, it seems that small-screen drama likes to portray its print and TV news journos as fearless crusaders exposing the truth.
Here’s five of our favourites, but what do you think? Leave your favourite shows in the comments below . . .
1. State of Play (2003, UKTV Play)
A six-part conspiracy thriller par excellence, with shades of House of Cards, as John Simm’s journo investigates his own friend — an MP (David Morrissey) up to his neck in it after his young researcher is found dead. Simm’s heroic fellow reporters include Kelly Macdonald and a young James McAvoy, while Bill Nighy is at his very best as the newspaper’s charismatic editor. A modern TV classic, remade as a Hollywood film starring Russell Crowe.
2. The Newsroom (2012-14, Sky/Now)
Aaron Sorkin’s serial was like The West Wing relocated to a TV evening news show, with Jeff Daniels’s anchor Will McAvoy the crusading voice of liberalism rather than Martin Sheen’s president. McAvoy has previous romantic entanglements with his new producer, MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer), and he is often in conflict with the powerful executives upstairs, not least Jane Fonda’s glamorous company owner. The high-velocity agenda of news ethics, lofty ideals and soapy dilemmas fair rattle along.
3. Press (2018, iPlayer)
A tale of two newspapers — at war with each other, but also their own potential obsolescence. Charlotte Riley’s talented journo works for the earnest quality paper The Herald, Ben Chaplin’s wolfish editor is at the helm of the tabloid The Post. If a drama about print media now feels almost like a period piece (and the series got polite rather than rave reviews), who cares when Chaplin is having so much fun playing the rogue, or when David Suchet is the purring proprietor in the back of a Rolls?
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4. The Morning Show (2019-, AppleTV+)
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon become reluctant co-hosts on a morning news show in a talky, squabbly sexual-politics drama that quickly becomes ludicrous, but also (for many, it seems) ludicrously addictive. The staff at the network are incredibly self-important as issues of #MeToo lurk (thanks to Steve Carell’s disgraced anchor), but at least the grinning boss (Billy Crudup, who steals the entire show) doesn’t mind: “Do you really think that’s what all this is about? Your little television network? This is a battle for the soul of the universe!”
5. The Newsreader (2021, iPlayer)
The brittle 1980s backstage dramas colliding at the News at Six studio make The Newsreader a bit like an Aussie cousin of the 1987 film Broadcast News. It’s also a character study of Anna Torv’s anchor, Helen Norville, and her colleague/love interest, Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) — he’s conflicted about his latent bisexuality while she’s determined to succeed amid the male put-downs. The strength of The Newsreader, however, is that it’s rarely simplistic: it has an eye on the microdynamics as the personal and professional boundaries blur.
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