Anatomy of a Scandal
ある告発の解剖
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A minister's affair becomes a rape trial; the wife's slow discovery of what she married is the real case.
Sophie Whitehouse has a beautiful life: two children and a husband, James, a Conservative MP, government minister and old Oxford friend of the prime minister, Tom Southern. One night James tells her that he has had a five-month affair with a young aide, Olivia Lytton, and that the press is about to print it. Sophie forgives him; they have been together since university. Then the police come. Olivia has accused James of raping her in a lift.
James is charged. Sophie is shut out by her friends and begins to count what she has given up for his career. In court the prosecutor, Kate Woodcroft QC, leads Olivia through her evidence: she was in love with him, she says, and what happened in the lift was rape. James says she consented. Then comes word of another claim, that at Oxford James sexually assaulted a fellow student, Holly Berry, who was Sophie's tutorial partner in their first year. Flashbacks go back to Oxford, to a party at which a friend, Alec Fisher, fell from a roof after taking heroin that Tom had supplied, and James helped Tom cover it up. Now, with his leadership under threat, Tom wants to cut James loose, and James reminds him what he owes him.
Kate is Holly Berry, living under another name. The flashbacks show James raping her in their last week at Oxford. On the stand James seems to recognise her and, answering her questions, denies it in words only she would understand, then loses his temper. Sophie recognises her too, and goes to see her in secret. At home James admits that on the night Alec died he had sex with a woman who may have been Holly.
The jury acquits him. Afterwards he lets slip to Sophie that he did call Olivia the insulting name he denied under oath, and she understands what she has been living with. She leaves him. At a last meeting Kate tells her plainly that James raped her, and Sophie tells Kate that she has given the press the story of Alec's death. Tom is forced to resign as prime minister and James is arrested. Sophie starts a new life in the country with the children, and Kate goes on working as a prosecutor.
Starring
Sienna Milleras Sophie Whitehouse
A politician's wife who stands by her husband through his trial and slowly sees what she married.
Sophie Whitehouse’s story
Sophie has built her life around James: the house, the children, the career she set aside for his. When he confesses an affair with his aide, Olivia, she forgives him at once; when Olivia accuses him of rape, she attends his trial. Shut out by her friends, she sits through Olivia's evidence and hears that another woman, Holly Berry, her own tutorial partner at Oxford, has accused him; it troubles her that he cannot remember Holly. She recognises Holly in the prosecutor by the way Kate takes notes, and visits her in secret. After the acquittal James lets slip the insult he denied under oath, and she leaves him. She gives the press the story of Alec's death; Tom resigns and James is arrested. She starts again in the country with the children.
Michelle Dockeryas Kate Woodcroft QC
The barrister prosecuting James, who is hiding that he raped her at Oxford under her former name.
Kate Woodcroft QC’s story
In the case against James Whitehouse, Kate leads Olivia gently through her evidence. When Olivia's friend takes the stand she is off her game, and afterwards she has a panic attack. The flashbacks show why: at Oxford, as Holly Berry, she was the student James raped in their last week. She calls her mother and gives her old name. Cross-examining James, she sees him recognise her and deny, in words only she would understand, what he did to her, and she presses him until he loses his temper. When Sophie comes to find her, she denies knowing her. The jury acquits him. At a last meeting she tells Sophie plainly that James raped her, hears that Sophie has leaked the story of Alec's death, and goes on working as a prosecutor.
Rupert Friendas James Whitehouse
A charming Conservative minister and the prime minister's closest friend, on trial for raping his aide.
James Whitehouse’s story
James gets ahead of the press by confessing to Sophie an affair with his aide, Olivia; then he is charged with raping her in a lift, and says she consented. The flashbacks show that at Oxford he helped Tom Southern cover up their friend Alec's death, and that in his last week there he raped Holly Berry. When Tom wants to cut him loose, James reminds him what he owes him. On the stand he says he and Olivia were in love, recognises the prosecutor as Holly, denies the rape in words meant for her alone and loses his temper. The jury acquits him. Afterwards he lets slip to Sophie that he did call Olivia the name he denied under oath, and she leaves him. When she leaks the story of Alec's death, he is arrested.
Naomi Scottas Olivia Lytton
A young parliamentary researcher who had an affair with James and accuses him of raping her.
Josette Simonas Angela Regan QC
James's defence barrister, who takes Olivia's account apart in cross-examination.
Why it matters
Anatomy of a Scandal is about what a rape trial can and cannot establish. The jury must decide whether Olivia consented in a lift; the flashbacks show what the court never hears, so that the acquittal lands at once as a legal fact and a moral failure. Its sharper subject is privilege: two men from the same Oxford circle, one of them now prime minister, who have protected each other since a friend died at a party. Sophie's story is the slow recognition that her comfortable marriage rested on that protection, and her last act is not to testify but to leak. Kate's is a survivor's, carried in silence into the job of prosecuting. The series reached number one on Netflix's global chart for English-language series in its second week, and critics were mixed. It leaves the question of what the people closest to such men already know, and what it costs them to act.