"One Rogue Reporter" (The Guardian 07/11/14)

One Rogue Reporter ***

Dirs: Tom Jenkinson, Rich Peppiatt. With: Rich Peppiatt, Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan, John Bishop. 55 mins. Cert: 18

Former Daily Star reporter Rich Peppiatt showcases some gift for Michael Moore-ish rabblerousing in this scattershot contribution to the post-Leveson landscape. An initial, imaginatively archived history of journalism, hurtling from His Girl Friday to the Milly Dowler/Madeleine McCann fallout, describes a mostly unarguable decline in editorial standards, backed up over the next hour by testimony from those at the heart of the hacking story (Steve Coogan, Hugh Grant) and industry observers (including this paper’s own Nick Davies and Roy Greenslade). Elsewhere, a fondness for tabloidy pranks and stunts – sourcing nudie footage of jailed NOTW filthmonger Neville Thurlbeck, hacking Kelvin MacKenzie’s texts, delivering dildos to Paul Dacre – only leave one wondering whether two ethical wrongs can ever really make a right. They’re pure payback – Peppiatt’s way of courting the baying stalls even as he stoops to the level of his targets. A less rogue sensibility might have stuck to the higher ground. 

One Rogue Reporter screens at London's Curzon Soho, followed by a Hugh Grant Q&A, this Monday at 6.45pm.