The Hack (2025) s01e03 Episode Script

1
(PROJECTOR CLICKS, WHIRS)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Previously on The Hack
Hacking phones of the News of the World
has been endemic.
Endemic?
They've hacked thousands.
There is an industry making huge profit
from invading peoples' private lives
and Rupert Murdoch's bullying tabloids
have explicitly encouraged it
and are buying it.
Charlotte Harris?
Nick Davies of The Guardian.
I can't talk to you about specific cases,
but I can tell you
there is so much more to come.
ALAN: Show me what you have.
A printout of an email proving a payment
of £7,000 to Mulcaire
for a story on Gordon Taylor.
And the police have access
to all of this and more.
In my opinion, what I have seen,
is a most careful investigation
by very experienced detectives.
And since no additional evidence
has come to light,
I can see no reason
to reopen the inquiry.
Keir Starmer's conducting a review.
And now, the CMS Select Committee
want to see us urgently.
- Are you reading the statement?
- No.
But I do have things to say.
- (DIALLING)
- (THUNDER RUMBLING)
AUTOMATED VOICE:
Welcome to your voicemail.
You have three new messages.
To listen to your messages, press one.
(BEEPS)
MICHAEL: Papa here.
Just wondering when you're over?
Oh, uh, the kitchen tap
seems to be fixed now,
- which is good. So, uh
- (BEEPS)
AUTOMATED VOICE:
Message deleted. Next message.
Nick, it's Sheridan.
Um, just to say I got a call
from the bank today.
They said it's in relation
to the re-mortgage,
but (SIGHS)
I felt like someone was fishing.
- (BEEPS)
- AUTOMATED VOICE: Message deleted.
Next message.
MAN: Nick, we're putting together
a legal response for Alan.
But, we need to speak to you
about the Select Committee.
- (FEEDBACK)
- (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
Oh, God.
Don't you dare.
Has Alan rung again?
Possibly.
Possibly?
NICK: Could be the school telling me
my son has broken his leg,
or Rebekah Brooks declaring surrender.
Or it could be Alan asking where I am
and whether David Leigh is with me.
I didn't answer.
I didn't want to lie to him.
Perhaps he'll leave a voicemail.
Why are we here? Good question.
MAN: Thank you for joining us, gentlemen.
Now, we have a lot of questions,
so try and keep opening statements short.
I'd like to keep this whole
experience quite short, if I may.
- (CHUCKLING)
- Um, but I do have
Well, it's quite a lot for me to say.
I'd like to start by showing you,
first of all, copies of an email.
With respect, Mr Davies, uh,
we have quite a few questions for you.
I understand that but I think your
questions will be given context
- Let's open with a question from
- Mr Whittingdale.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
Do you want the evidence or not?
I would like to read it.
Yup. Okay.
- There you go.
- Okay.
This is an email
sent for Neville Thurlbeck,
Chief Reporter for News of the World.
A document the police
have had for some time.
A document that contains
transcripts of hacked voicemails.
I hope you'll agree
this backs up our claims.
But what's more unsettling
is that Scotland Yard
have never arrested
or interviewed Neville Thurlbeck.
My chief concern is
Mr Davies, this is all very dramatic,
but if we can get back
to the matter in hand.
Mr Whittingdale, I'm very worried
that News International journalists
have been breaking the law.
And equally worried that Scotland Yard
do not appear to have investigated them.
(PEOPLE WHISPERING)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES)
ALAN: "Mr Davies,
this is all very dramatic."
It's amazing what you can do with
kids' glue and some black paper.
You You got your kids to redact a
They enjoyed it. They like craft.
Good revolutionaries.
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
- Yeah.
What was that letter
Che Guevara wrote to his kids?
(MOBILE VIBRATING)
ALAN: Alan.
Hi.
No, it's fine.
I think we got away with it.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
What are they saying?
Yes.
(INHALES SHARPLY)
Can you just Yes.
Right. Thanks for letting me know.
David Leppard, The Sunday Times.
- Why is Leppard phoning you?
- It wasn't him.
Leppard's spreading a story
that I hired John Ford
to hack voicemail.
It's apparently all over parliament.
John Ford, the blagger?
You wouldn't use John Ford
Er, they're saying it's in relation
to our investigation of Monsanto.
I did use an intelligence firm.
Limosis.
It's possible they subcontracted
to John Ford.
Well, The Guardian
isn't in trouble any more.
I am.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
John Ford.
John Ford had had his hand
in and out of Alastair Campbell's
trash for years.
But his real talent was for blagging.
An ex-actor with style.
He did all sorts to get all sorts.
Gordon Brown's bank records for one.
And Alan may have hired him, which
- Well
- (SNORING)
The newspaper industry
loves a bit of hypocrisy to expose.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC
INTENSIFIES, STOPS)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
Morning.
Not the face you were hoping
to wake up to?
(GRUNTS)
(CLICKS TONGUE) You know,
I think the time has come to admit
that John Ford isn't home.
David Leigh, investigations editor
at The Guardian.
Also, Alan's brother-in-law.
The Sunday Times have got him well hid.
(GROANS, SNIFFS)
I think we can give him another day.
Perhaps we can get hold
of Alan's paper trail?
Get inside the intelligence firm.
Start again.
It'll take too long,
they'll publish before
Then Alan will take a hit
and we hope he survives it.
But sitting here, Nick
It's getting us nowhere.
This is not all my fault.
Murdoch's an eel.
He's entirely relentless.
I'm not picking a fight with Murdoch.
No.
You're picking a fight
with our entire industry.
- (MOBILE VIBRATING)
- Don't answer it.
No, do. Do.
Don't let them leave a voicemail.
- It's an email.
- Oh.
Hmm. A statement from
the Crown Prosecution Service.
The CPS says, "It's not appropriate
"to re-open a case
or revisit the decision."
Ugh! They're not backing us.
Who was it that John Yates
said about the case
Something about, uh,
a small number of, uh
Of hacks, yeah.
Our inquiries showed that
they only use the tactic
against a far smaller number
of individuals.
Page two.
"Searched Mulcaire's office,
"seized material which indicated some
non-royal cases had been hacked."
- Yup.
- "The DPP states,
"only a select sample of these
could be taken to court
"because any other approach might
have made the case unmanageable."
Unmanageable?
That suggests a lot of hacking.
- By more than one reporter.
- Yeah.
Almost an admission of such.
I'll write, you call.
- Got it.
- (PHONE BEEPING)
That means you need to leave the car.
Got it. Yeah.
- This is Nick Davies of The Guardian.
- MAN: Hi there.
I need to speak to somebody at the CPS
about the Glenn Mulcaire prosecution.
MAN: Uh, yes. Yes,
but specifically, how can I help?
Specifically?
I want to know what the police passed up
and you declined to prosecute
because any other approach
would have been "unmanageable".
- MAN: Okay.
- I have information,
particularly an email
that I want to discuss.
MAN: Uh, yes, sir.
Um, can I put you on hold?
Yes, I will hold.
Never gonna give you up ♪
- Never gonna let you down ♪
- Really?
The plot thickens.
The Neville email was never flagged.
The Met never flagged it to the CPS.
Why not?
I can't give this up. It's too important.
No, I know.
I won't let it hurt Alan.
I'm not entirely sure
you can make that promise.
(SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING)
(DAVID GRUNTS)
(BELL TOLLING)
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Made you a sandwich.
- Oh, cheers.
You look rough.
Yeah, and you look beautiful.
I'm not sleeping.
No, neither am I.
- Daniel Morgan.
- Anything I can
I can't tell you anything. You know that.
- Is there something to tell
- No.
Christ. Salmon and cream cheese, eh?
- Scottish salmon.
- (CHUCKLES)
And I need some non-Daniel Morgan advice.
What, you're saying poncy sandwiches
don't come free?
Ah.
Why would the Met not flag evidence
to the Crown Prosecution Service?
CPS don't get everything.
And everything it does get has to
pass the relevance test, right?
- Correct.
- Okay.
So, is this relevant?
They're transcripts
for Neville Thurlbeck,
Chief Reporter at the News of the Word.
And they didn't get shown this?
They put it through as "unused material."
Shit.
Tell me. What is happening in the Met?
Well, there's obviously a lot
I can't say.
But what I can say,
is that ever since Stephen Lawrence,
the Met's have made it their job to
Well, Dick Fedorcio,
- director of communications.
- Yeah, I've met him.
Well, he currently sits
on the Met's senior management team.
Our comms chief, not a police officer.
And he has direct impact
on operational decisions.
Good press matters that much?
These meetings are dominated
by how to get the cases
that are going well
in the front of the tabloids
and the cases that are
not going so well, off them.
By order of the Commissioner,
Dick will wine and dine
the crime journalists.
And guess who he meets the most?
News of the World and The Sun.
But not flagging this to the CPS?
It's bad. Very bad.
Look, will you stop doing that?
You're making me jumpy.
I think I'm being watched.
- What, you have anything to hide?
- You, for one thing.
Hey, I'm just meeting a pal
for a poncy sandwich.
Glenn Mulcaire did
a minimum 20,000 hours' work
for the News of the World.
That's on record.
It's an industrial level of work.
Which means he worked for far more
journalists than Clive Goodman.
So, Neville Thurlbeck
appears to be one other,
but was he feeding all of them?
Nick, just be careful, okay?
See, these people
are not to be fucked with.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
- (MOBILE RINGING)
- (FRIDGE DOOR OPENING, CLOSING)
There you go.
Charlotte Harris.
NICK: Nick Davies.
Right.
You sound delighted to hear from me.
CHARLOTTE: Delighted and not surprised.
How'd you get this number?
Did you blag it?
Your office gave it to me.
I can be very polite
and surprisingly charming.
If you're calling about
the CPS enhancement,
I'm as pissed off as you are,
but there's nothing I can do.
Look, the CPS have a file
on Glenn Mulcaire.
You must know someone who
Nick, I don't work for you
and I've got to go.
Good luck and goodbye.
- (DISCONNECTS)
- Uh, right. Okay.
Glenn Mulcaire. Chief phone hacker
for the News of the World.
Given six months' jail time
for the Clive Goodman case
but now, he's out and about.
And sniffing about.
(BANGING)
(DOOR OPENING)
Mr Mulcaire? Nick Davies.
I saw you.
Maroon Saab by the park.
Think I'd do what I do
without being good at it?
I don't know if you've been reading
my pieces in The Guardian.
You taping this?
No. I wouldn't do that
without your consent, Mr Mulcaire.
It's Glenn.
So, who else are you talking to, Nick?
Got anyone good in the police?
Who's your snout at the screws?
Who are you still talking to
at that paper?
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) You're funny.
Why are you here?
Did you ever work for Neville Thurlbeck?
Oh, right.
Let me save you some time
I have an email written to you,
uh, which is marked for Neville
from Ross Hindley
and it contains transcripts of 35
Everything I did came out in court.
- Anything more, I didn't do.
- They cut you off, right?
You do know you're still open
to future charges?
Get out now before the whole thing
collapses on you.
You know I've got five kids in there.
And you come to my house
and what, threaten me?
I wasn't threatening you.
Have you any idea
what you're dealing with here?
(CHUCKLES)
Look, you do yours
and I'll do mine, yeah?
I wasn't threatening you.
- I was telling you they won't help.
- (DOOR SLAMS)
NICK: Okay, so,
there is a lie happening here.
The CPS memo shows this stretches
right inside News International.
Glenn Mulcaire essentially confirmed it.
He didn't confirm it.
I'm digging in. In the meantime,
I'd like to publish
"Are Scotland Yard
Scared of Rupert Murdoch?"
Saying what?
Saying they buried evidence which
should have been passed to the CPS.
- Poking the bear.
- That's what we do? Poke the bear.
- No.
- Can we just take a minute?
- What's your angle here?
- Well, I have two lines of attack.
One, to reveal who was on
their shopping list. I need names.
Much more of them. They were far more
than three royals, five non-royals.
I want to know
who signed off on these names.
I need proof
it was more than Clive Goodman.
How will you get that proof?
My second line of attack
- is to get inside the police.
- A mistake.
To discover why this evidence
wasn't flagged to the CPS.
What criminality was ignored and why?
John Yates called me
and said we've got
the wrong end of the stick
- with the police in all of this.
- We're on the wrong end of the stick?
Yes. Do you not think that's possible?
Look, are we sure this is sensible?
We're risking our relationship
with the police
and with good journalists
from other newspapers.
Why? To root out a few bad apples.
- It doesn't seem
- Bad apples, wrong sticks?
- (BLOWS RASPBERRY)
- I agree with Nick.
The Neville email is extraordinary.
And the fact that
they didn't flag it to the CPS,
more extraordinary still.
A chief reporter seems to have
been involved in hacking.
That didn't warrant an investigation?
There are potentially
thousands of victims,
but the Met is only claiming
a small number.
What do you think, Gill?
For a public interest defence,
you need to be absolutely sure
of your facts.
Right now, this feels a bit small.
Well, I have to say I agree.
Let's pause on the Scotland Yard article.
- Let's let the PCC
- Press Complaints Commission.
The PCC will settle all of this down.
They'll back us
and it will all be easier.
What else have we got?
Something other than when's Gordon Brown
going to call this next damn election?
DAVID: Listen, Alan's nervous,
but he's right.
You need more, but the angles
you're pursuing, also right.
Who says the PCC are gonna back us?
What, you don't think they will?
Why is Alan waiting for them?
You know we have to keep pushing.
It's kill or be killed. We can't wait.
Yes. The Sunday Times
are getting ready to publish
on John Ford and Alan.
- Right.
- Hmm.
Have Limosis come back with any more?
Nothing that gives us categorical proof.
He's in trouble.
Just give him time.
They're accusing him
of being a hypocrite.
We have hypocrisy on hypocrisy.
The world's gone mad.
DAVID: Look, Nick.
Nick.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
No, Nick. Nick, Nick.
- Whatever you're doing, Nick, stop.
- (DIALLING)
(PHONE RINGING)
WOMAN: Hello?
Hi, this is Nick Davies of The Guardian.
Can I have The Sunday Times
managing editor's office?
(WHISPERING) I mean it, Nick.
WOMAN: Hello?
Hi, this is Nick Davies of The Guardian.
- WOMAN: All right.
- Yeah.
I'd like confirmation,
on the record, of A,
how many times you've made payments
to John Ford
to blag into confidential databases.
And B, the period of time over which
these payments have been made.
WOMAN: Okay. We'll need to investigate.
Of course.
You'll need to do some investigation.
You just call me back whenever
you've had the chance to do so, yeah?
WOMAN: Right.
Great, thanks. Bye-bye.
- (GLENN SIGHS)
- Hi.
Peace offering.
I don't drink.
Can I get you something softer?
A Mars bar?
(CHUCKLES) Sure, I'd tell you
everything I know for a Mars bar.
I wasn't I'm not threatening you.
No, no. You're Willy Wonka.
Chocolate for everyone.
(LAUGHS)
I want to know your side of the story.
How'd you find me here?
You're on the club's website.
You won the big break competition
here two years ago. Congratulations.
In court transcripts,
it says that you worked
for News of the World
for 70 hours a week.
(SIGHS) Here we go.
Over six years, that's over 20,000 hours.
What were you doing for them
during that time?
I'm a PI. I did PI work.
For who?
Because it wasn't just Clive Goodman.
Oh, oh, oh. Naming names?
That's two Mars bars at least.
I know you aren't to blame for all this.
Your name is in the mud already.
If you explain exactly what you did
and who you were working for
Even if I wanted to tell you who,
the police have got all
my notebooks and my computers
and everything, so.
Notebooks? What's in those?
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
- (SIGHS) Fuck you.
It was in the CPS report
that your office was searched
and material was seized but
I didn't know there were notebooks.
You find me a PI
who doesn't write things down.
Yeah, well, what's in them?
Lines of inquiry?
Names of the people you were hacking
Sorry, doing PI work on?
And the names of who
you were doing them for.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Names of
the News of the World journalists.
Go away.
And take your cheap beer with you.
I do not think
Genuinely, really do not think
that you should be the fall guy here.
Yeah, well, be careful
that you're not a fall guy too.
Eh, champ?
Now, please fuck off.
Let me do the one thing I still enjoy.
All right.
Good luck.
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS)
NICK: Mulcaire's given me an idea.
CHARLOTTE: Oh, good.
All he's given me is a headache.
We need to get inside the court system.
We need to get more information released.
CHARLOTTE: Sorry?
They won't release documents to me.
They will if they're compelled to
by a judge.
CHARLOTTE: Hang on. Can you calm down?
- What?
- Children.
You are aware it's the weekend?
Oh, right.
The police have Mulcaire's notebooks.
If we can get them into the public eye,
we'll see who hired who,
how high this goes, who was being hacked.
I need We need compelled evidence.
(KIDS CHATTERING)
You swapped between
"I need" and "We need"
in the same sentence. Do you know that?
I know you've other clients.
I know you're building
several cases here.
- Help me, it'll help you, too.
- (KIDS LAUGHING)
We don't work together, Nick.
Well, of course we don't.
But we do have the same cause.
I can't get inside the notebooks
because I'm not mentioned
in the notebooks.
But you find a client who is in there
who has the bravery to take it to court,
suddenly, you can see
how much this opens up.
Yeah. (INHALES SHARPLY)
Let me, um
There might be somebody
you could talk to.
Well, let me know
as soon as you can, okay?
Yes, I heard you. I'm on it.
Okay, thanks. Bye.
There is an art to fear.
An art the News of the World and The Sun
and all those nasty buggers
mastered a long time ago.
They call it monstering.
Grievous emotional harm.
The kind of injury from which
some victims simply never recover.
A monstering is intended
to destroy the victim involved
and it is intended to make sure
that no one stands up to them ever again.
Take former Labour
government minister, Clare Short.
She criticised The Sun's use
of topless women to sell the paper.
She found herself
denounced to millions as
Killjoy Clare.
Short of looks.
Short on brains.
NICK: The paper offered
free car stickers,
sent page three models round to her home.
Ran a beauty contest to ask their readers
whether they would prefer
to see her face or the back of a bus.
(PHOTOGRAPHERS CLAMOURING)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
The News of the World
ran two bogus stories
suggesting Clare was involved
in pornography.
Tried to buy old photographs of her
as a 20 year-old in a nightdress.
And published a smear story
which attempted to link her
- to a West Indian gangster.
- (GUN COCKS)
- (GUN FIRING)
- NICK: They monstered her.
It was horrible.
In his diary, Alastair Campbell
recalls the ferocious monstering
which was given
to the then Transport Secretary,
Stephen Byers in 2002.
It continued even after he resigned.
It's like they get a corpse
but then they're disappointed
there's nothing left to kill.
So, they try and kill the dead body, too.
So, standing up to it
Standing up to that paper takes guts.
And possibly a little insanity.
Max, it's an honour.
An honour? Is that right?
Max Clifford.
King of the kiss and tell.
His job was bargaining with the tabloids
to get the best headlines
and the most money
for his string of clients.
Didn't need to be true,
just needed to sell.
Do you remember
"Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster"?
He wrote that headline.
But maybe it takes a tabloid man
to kill the tabloids.
I'm sincerely grateful
for you being here.
Charlotte explained your problem.
I have a feeling that our interests
might align on this.
They hacked me. That's on record.
And I want to find out
who signed off on it.
- Well, that's extremely important.
- We hope it will be important.
We've had our first disclosure.
We made an application to the courts.
This is everything
Mulcaire wrote about Max.
NICK: Hmm.
They've redacted everything.
In particular,
anything which might identify
the News of the World journalists who
might have commissioned the hacking.
I'm going back to court. We'll get more.
Question. When they disclosed
Gordon Taylor's paperwork,
did they redact anything?
- No.
- Why start now?
Because it implicates them.
So did Gordon Taylor.
They're working out
how to make themselves impenetrable.
They're watching us.
You do know what you're taking on?
Do you know who you're talking to?
I believe Rebekah Brooks is your friend.
Didn't you help her
when she was accused of assault?
I help her. But not in that case.
I have my loyalties and I have beliefs.
I mean, I know Andy Coulson.
But him,
sitting next to the Prime Minister,
that's wrong in every way.
All the same
I've spent my entire life
inside that machine.
I know what their guns smell like.
Do you?
We need you, Max.
Christ. If I'm your best hope,
you're fucked.
- SHERIDAN: You look tired.
- (DOOR CLOSES)
SHERIDAN: Are you sleeping?
Oh, I've definitely slept better.
That, um, mortgage application,
did that come back at all?
No, but there was something else.
Um
So, when I was picking the kids up,
uh, someone I didn't recognise
started talking to me
about a Maggie someone.
Now, that's an ex of yours, right?
Oh, God. Did they see the kids?
Yeah, I mean, they kept is casual, but
Shit.
Maggie? God, they're desperately digging.
I didn't like it, Nick. School gate.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Well, look, they approach you again,
you take out your phone,
you take a photograph.
Okay. And promise me it's not
going to get worse than this.
Well, they'd be really stupid
to do anything I could print.
But I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.
Will they find any skeletons?
Well, if they look properly,
they'll find a cemetery.
- (KNOCKING)
- This is a delivery.
- You stay where you are.
- No, no. Let me go.
- All right.
- Um, we'll Let's talk later.
Bye, kids.
NICK: Bye-bye. KIDS: Bye.
- (DOOR OPENS)
- SHERIDAN: Alan.
ALAN: Sheridan. SHERIDAN: Oh.
(KISSING) How are you?
- I'm good. You all right?
- Mmm.
SHERIDAN: I'm off. I'll leave you to it.
NICK: Hello. You coming in?
No.
I've got food on. There's enough.
I have some, uh, good news actually.
Max Clifford, of all people,
taking them to court.
John Ford thing's gone away.
(CAR DEPARTING)
Great.
You think I don't know how?
- Let's talk inside.
- Nick Davies,
always guaranteed to bring
a flame thrower to a knife fight.
It was the best thing to do.
You didn't think
to consult me beforehand?
It's gone away, Alan.
Because you, um (SMACKS LIPS)
What's the right word to use here?
Provoked them.
In Flat Earth news,
I found substantial proof that
The Sunday Times were using John Ford
- That doesn't matter.
- Of course it matters.
They were wrong to use John Ford.
I was wrong if I did,
inadvertently, use John Ford.
And you were wrong to get involved
in a way that wasn't asked for
and wasn't warranted.
I was trying to broker peace
with John Witherow
and you could have destabilised that,
and starting a fight
with the News of the World
and The Sunday Times.
I knew it would work.
Are you denying that it did?
No. But if you knew it would work,
why didn't you make that call
at the very beginning?
Why did you try and find him?
Spend a couple of nights
in a car with David Leigh?
Jesus Christ, Nick,
you're such a
Hazard.
I was just following what was
Alan, come on. Look (CHUCKLES)
We need to keep pushing.
They will push back.
We need to keep pushing.
I get it, you're exhausted.
You think you're taking on
everyone by yourself,
but it's not just you
in the box on this one, Nick.
It's all of us.
And I can have a hand on your leg
the whole time.
(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
- (ENGINE STARTING)
(SIGHS)
(SIGHS)
WOMAN: What have you done?
You stupid child.
(MOBILE VIBRATING)
Yeah?
- DAVID: I guessed you'd be up.
- Yup.
DAVID: The Press Complaints
Commission have come back.
Not good news?
DAVID: "The PCC has seen no new evidence
"to suggest that the practice
of the phone messaging tapping
"was undertaken by other
beyond Goodman and Mulcaire.
"Or evidence that
the News of the World executives
"knew about Goodman
or Mulcaire's activities."
You were right, Alan was wrong.
They haven't backed us either.
Yeah, okay.
DAVID: Sorry, Nick.
Mmm. Thanks for calling.
- Bye.
- DAVID: Bye.
(MOBILE VIBRATING)
AUTOMATED VOICE:
Please enter your four digit PIN.
(MOBILE BEEPS)
AUTOMATED VOICE:
Welcome to your voicemail.
You have four new messages.
To listen to your messages, press one.
- (BEEPS)
- MAN: Uh, this is Carl.
I'm here to read your meter.
You said you'd be here
- (BEEPS)
- AUTOMATED VOICE: Message deleted.
Next message.
CHARLOTTE: Hey, it's Charlotte.
We've entered the amended claim for Max
and we're waiting for the courts
- (BEEPS)
- AUTOMATED VOICE: Message deleted.
Next message.
SHERIDAN: Nick, hi, it's me.
Uh, another one.
Not sure if it's anything,
but, um, a girl you used
AUTOMATED VOICE: Message deleted.
(GARBLED) Next message.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS)
- (FEEDBACK)
- (ELECTRICAL WHIRRING)
(DEEP BREATH, CLEARS THROAT)
(DOOR CLOSES, LOCKS)
(DOOR KNOCKER KNOCKS)
(DOOR OPENS)
Hello, Dad.
You're looking thinner.
You look good.
Still a charmer.
(CUPS RATTLING)
NICK: I should be
helping with that, Papa.
(CHUCKLES) Should. Would. Could.
No, you can't.
Anyway, these are the good hours.
What's that mean?
Hips hurt, knees hurt,
back hurts till 11:00 am.
And then again, from 3:00 pm.
- But 11:00 till 3:00
- Is a holiday.
Never get old.
So, you've got four good hours and
you sleep for, presumably eight
Yes, but don't turn it into
a maths puzzle.
I can still do the crossword,
however my hips feel.
That's all that counts.
(GROANS SOFTLY)
The crossword in The Times.
Should I stop buying The Times?
Yes.
- I won't.
- I know.
I've, um, been reading your pieces.
You've managed to watch
the Select Committee.
I have no idea how you even did that.
I'm not a dinosaur.
I can use the internet.
So, is it all as hard as it looks?
It's fine.
You've got nothing to prove.
I'm not trying to prove anything.
Your mother would have liked it.
All this trouble.
She always liked trouble.
(SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING)
Just be safe with yourself.
That's all I ask.
Just be safe.
Thank you.
Fifth floor, yeah?
- (PHONE RINGING)
- (LIFT DINGS)
(TICKING)
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
(DOOR OPENS, CREAKS)
- YATES: Mr Davies.
- Assistant Commissioner.
- YATES: Thank you for coming in.
- Thank you.
- YATES: Dick said we should meet.
- Yes.
Dick Fedorcio was kind enough
to arrange the meeting.
I thought it useful
so we could smooth matters over,
so we can help each other.
Mmm. I don't think I can help.
No, no, no. I'm here to help you.
A story that makes
Scotland Yard look good.
I just need you to confirm
that in order to be able to
uh, inform all the potential victims
of the hacking
that you set up a new database
containing all the evidence
which you gathered in 2006.
Have we?
Uh
Well, I've very good word from lawyers
who've been in touch with the Yard
saying that you're
taking the need to organise
the evidence which perhaps wasn't
organised quite so well, seriously.
All right, fine.
Maybe we have organised a database.
I will give you that.
But in return,
maybe you can cease and desist
with briefing everyone against me.
We have nothing to do
with News International
and you bloody well know it.
Assistant Commissioner, my interest
You think I don't know what you're doing?
When I appeared in front of
that damn Select Committee,
I could see in the eye movements
of the MPs
that you'd briefed all but one of them.
I'm sorry, eye movements?
Mmm-hmm. I'm a clever cop, Mr Davies.
Right.
Why didn't you pass the CPS
the email to Neville Thurlbeck,
which clearly implicated him
in the hacking scandal?
Was it because,
well, as the CPS have said,
that you could only use a sample
because the evidence
was unmanageable otherwise?
No. The CPS were clear.
With the Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act,
it is only a crime
if the intended victim
had not already heard the message.
No one interprets RIPA like that,
except you.
All I want to know is the extent of this.
Can you tell me how many victims
of phone hacking
you've been able to identify?
Mr Davies,
the Crown Prosecution Service
do not agree with you.
The Press Complaints Commission
do not agree with you.
And the Metropolitan Police
certainly do not agree with you.
There's dog-minded
and then there's just dog.
This left wing attack on Murdoch
by The Guardian
If you can't give me a bald number,
just tell me how many victims
were in Mulcaire's notebooks.
(LAUGHS)
I have never fallen out
with a journalist before.
Well, you finally have done so.
Congratulations.
- (DOOR OPENS)
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
- (LIFT DOOR OPENS)
- (SIGHS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
This is Kate Saunders
from The Guardian newspaper.
(PHONE RINGING)
(KNOCKING)
Hi.
- (DOOR CLOSES)
- Look, I brought you a gift.
It's an "I'm not sorry" gift.
Gonna look?
But I'm also, um I'm stuck, so
If calling it an "I'm not sorry" gift
is offensive,
call it a "damn" gift.
As in, "Damn, I'm stuck. Please help".
Why are you stuck?
They are Everybody is (SIGHS)
No one is telling me the truth and I
Basic thing about you, Nick,
is that each time you find
someone lying to you,
you are utterly amazed,
even though you've devoted most
of your life to uncovering liars.
I wear the coat of a cynic
only to conceal the heart
of an agitated otter.
They, um Talking of cynicism,
they're now spreading a rumour
that I have a love child.
A love child.
They're coming after me too.
Sheridan's been farming
all sorts of calls.
But they're not telling lies about you.
- Why are the only lies about me?
- Don't know.
Because they think attacking me
is the easiest way of shutting you up?
Clever, really.
They know I need you.
How curious, you choose now
to say something so kind.
Oh, God.
I'm your Sancho Panza.
(LAUGHS)
I always thought I was yours.
I'm sorry for making your life difficult.
I don't
I don't take our friendship
to mean that
I don't expect you
to print everything I write.
ALAN: You're just doing
what you're doing.
Which is why you're the best.
Which is why I pay you. Handsomely.
(CHUCKLES)
You're just as optimistic as me.
Christ, you thought the PCC
would come back on our side.
- Even I didn't
- How a so-called industry regulator
could say that about us.
Well, it's the death of self-regulation.
- Me? What do I do?
- Can't you call your Mr Apollo?
No, he's gone.
Said he would.
(INHALES) He always contacted me.
Never from the same line twice.
Well, wait for Max Clifford
and your day in court.
Max is important, but we can't wait.
We're in a firefight here.
They're gonna keep slinging mud
till something sticks.
Then
Oh, what about the phone companies?
Sorry?
Yates made that claim
in the Select Committee
that they'd asked the companies
if there were any other victims
of Mulcaire and Goodman
in order to take appropriate action.
- Yeah, I remember.
- Well,
ask the phone companies to disclose
how many victims they identified
and warned of being hacked.
You might get
the hacked numbers that way.
You're a genius, Sancho.
Never call me that again.
Go on. Click it.
Just click it.
- (CLICKS)
- NICK: Got books.
She's not naked.
There's pens when you click
and they're naked,
but she's covered in books.
- It's a joke.
- Thanks for explaining it to me.
- I'll never use it.
- I'll never ask you to.
Thank you.
ALAN: The Commissioner called
after you left Yates.
He said to me that, um,
your coverage of the hacking scandal
was exaggerated and incorrect.
It's the first time
I felt genuine confidence
that we're doing
absolutely the right thing.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
Adios. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
The Select Committee had,
of course, rumbled on after us,
meeting press, politicians, the police.
Trying to meet Rebekah Brooks,
she said no.
Though they succeeded
in meeting Andy Coulson, who said
As little as possible.
But they were working it
as best they could.
And I was working with them,
as best I could,
feeding them occasional questions.
Which we asked in our own way.
Hadn't occurred to me
that the police revealing,
in a memo, written by Yates,
that the mobile phone companies
had been contacted, was a way in.
The police provided
the individual phone companies
details of the telephone numbers.
And it was agreed that they would
individually research,
assess and address whether or not
and to what degree,
their customers had been the subject
of contact by the suspects.
What I'm looking to find out
is when the police contacted you,
what number of victims
you managed to trace
and how many you contacted.
- (MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
- Right, but Yes.
But John Yates was quoted
in the Select Committee
as saying you were spoken to, so.
(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
My question is, did you ignore
the Assistant Commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police?
- Yeah, sure. Sure, I'll hold.
- DAVID: Nick.
O2, 40 victims. Now, it's only one.
It's only one. When one goes, they all
Yes, it is. Now, O2 have just confirmed
that once they were alerted
by the police,
they contacted 40 hacking victims.
I just wondered
whether you have a number for us.
Or have you more to hide than them?
- (MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
- Great.
Great. How many?
MAN: Broadly the same as O2.
You think you can do any better than,
"Broadly the same as O2"?
Orange have come back with 45 victims.
Do you want to match that number instead?
(MAN LAUGHING)
No? Okay. Right, okay.
Well, thank you very much.
Thank you, bye.
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)
- (KNOCKING)
- O2, 40 victims.
Vodafone, 40 victims, Orange, 45 victims.
Together with the original eight,
that's more than 130 people
who had their phones hacked.
Far more than Yates said.
And this is just the tip
of a very, very big iceberg.
Okay. Let's do it.
- (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)
- (PRINTERS WHIRRING)
NICK: This wasn't just Goodman.
This wasn't just the royals.
This was a practice.
This was our foothold.
And yet
Even though News International
should have been on fire,
it, once again, barely hit the sides.
(DISTORTION SOUND)
And no other newspaper thought it was
an important story either.
(SLOW DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
DAVE: Good scoop.
The mobile phone companies, very good.
NICK: Makes me happy
to hear you say words like scoop.
DAVE: Why, is that not what you say?
You ever say "You're nicked"?
I think I tried that once or twice
when I was a younger man.
It doesn't matter. No one's reporting it.
Doesn't matter what it is,
we're just getting frozen out.
- So try harder.
- What?
Try harder. Stop pussy footing around.
You think this is pussy footing?
I put my paper on the line.
I put myself on the line.
You're not nailing people. You're not
asking the right questions.
Oh, you're a journalist now?
Why was your Neville email not passed on?
Print the photo on your front page
of Assistant Commissioner,
John Yates and Rebekah Brooks
sitting together
at the Police Bravery awards.
They sat together?
DAVE: Print what she said in parliament,
"We have paid the police for information"
and say that doesn't even go
halfway to the truth.
There's a murky swamp out there, Nick.
Top tier police in the media
and that needs reporting.
I'm trying to write about
all these things.
Unfortunately,
it's speculative and libellous.
You need evidence, so do I.
You want to help,
give me something concrete.
All right. I've dug.
The case, the Neville email, the hacking.
That case was given
to Specialist Operations.
Terrorist branch?
The boss at the time
was a guy called Andy Hayman.
I know that name.
Yeah, well, he disappeared.
Retirement in a puff of smoke.
And then re-appeared
Uh, yeah.
Uh, writing articles for The Times.
- That's why I know the name.
- Exactly.
The press goes through the police
like a stick of rock.
And News International,
they're the worst of the lot.
It's still speculative.
Sorry, my friend. I need more.
Aye.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(MOBILE RINGING)
- Charlotte. Tell me some good news.
- CHARLOTTE: Hi.
It's Max.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES)
Max.
Fucking hell, you brought him?
Max, we've got them on the rack.
You settle, the whole thing
gets covered up again.
You got them on the rack? With what?
What we need, I can't get.
Stand tall.
Be the man who made a difference.
Be the man. Do you listen to yourself?
CHARLOTTE: This isn't
- Please, listen to my advice here.
- You just want your piece of it.
Oh, your backwoods deal?
I like to think I'm better than that.
- No one is better than money.
- How much?
- Oh, go on! How much?
- Fuck off.
CHARLOTTE: Oh, well. We tried.
The Murdochs agreed to pay Clifford
more than a million pounds.
Some to cover his legal costs.
Most in the form of guaranteed income
for stories he would sell them
over the next three years.
This meant it could be presented
as something other
than the payment of damages.
This meant Charlotte didn't get her cut.
This meant it wasn't news.
Nobody was fooled, but it was clever.
Our biggest gun was spiked.
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- MAN: (ON TV) First election debate.
Tonight, history in the making,
as we are joined by the leader
of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg,
the Conservative Party leader,
David Cameron
and the leader of The Labour Party,
Gordon Brown.
(AUDIENCE CLAPPING)
NICK: The truth is power and secrecy
walk hand in hand.
Power enjoys secrecy
because it increases its scope.
Power generates secrecy
simply because it can.
Downing Street, Scotland Yard,
they're no different
to other powerful organisations.
They find secrecy easy,
natural and extremely helpful,
regardless of whether or not
it may cheat the public
of information to which
they have a profound right.
But, here's the thing
about power and secrecy.
If you can expose the secrecy,
you might You might, might,
break the power.
- (WOMAN VOCALISING)
- (MUSIC CRESCENDOS, STOPS)
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