The legal drama about the MeToo movement is based on the best-selling book, which was inspired by two actual news situations from Britain.
Anatomy of a Scandal is the latest political thriller to be released on Netflix. The show is based on the best-selling novel of the same name written by Sarah Vaughan.
David E. Kelley, the creator of Big Little Lies, is responsible for bringing this new series to our screens. The plot centers on an MP named James Whitehouse, played by Rupert Friend, who is accused of raping his aide named Olivia, played by Naomi Scott. Whitehouse was also having an affair with Olivia.
The Netflix series raises the question of whether or not James is responsible for the heinous murder. As the series unfolds, more and more details are revealed through flashbacks from his college years, bringing into question whether or not James is responsible for the crime.
The television drama was based on the fictional book of the same name, but Vaughan’s best-selling novel was in reality motivated by two events that had actually occurred in the news in the United Kingdom.
Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about the ways in which the real world inspired the making of Anatomy of a Scandal.
Is There Any Truth To The Events Shown In The Movie Anatomy Of A Scandal?
Two actual news items that were reported in British newspapers served as the impetus for the creation of the book that would later become the basis for the Netflix series Anatomy of a Scandal.
In an interview with The Guardian, author Sarah Vaughan cited both the firing of Boris Johnson from the front-bench of the Conservative party in 2004 for lying about an extramarital affair and the release of footballer Ched Evans from prison in 2014 after serving time for a rape conviction; the conviction was later quashed, and he was found not guilty at a retrial. Both of these events occurred after Johnson lied about having an affair outside of his marriage.
Boris Johnson is “not in any way James,” Vaughan emphasized, referring to the character that is portrayed by Rupert Friend. Vaughan went on to say that “it was his attitude to the truth that interested me.” Theresa May recently stated in the House of Commons that it was possible that the individual “either [he] didn’t read the regulations, or [he] didn’t comprehend them, or [he] didn’t think they applied to [him].”
Or, to put it another way, as James does in Anatomy of a Scandal: “I told the truth, near enough.” Or, the truth as I perceived it.”
On her own website, the author explains that the book “explores power, privilege, and consent by drawing on [her] experience as a political correspondent, court reporter, and student at Oxford.”
During an interview with Exploring Exeter, she discussed the Ched Evans case, which, while she was in her twenties and working as a news reporter, “merged” in her mind with her own “MeToo experiences.”
“I actually dreamed up the storyline after being agitated by news of a rape case,” she added. “The coverage of the rape case really got under my skin.”
“It was back in November of 2013, when football player Ched Evans was in the process of appealing the rape conviction he received. I was upset by the way in which the alleged rape victim was portrayed by commentators, and I started thinking about how terrible it must be to muster up the courage to come forward with a rape conviction, only to have doubt cast on that in the papers and in court. I started thinking about how horrible it must be to 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 daughter, who was then 8 years old, to have to experience some of the things I had as I learned to navigate sexual politics in my early to mid-twenties,” she said.
She proceeded by saying, “The essential story pieces came to me in the dream, so it’s evident that I merged worries I’d had about power, perceptions of truth, privilege – all witnessed at Oxford and in Westminster – and consent.”
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