Netflix
Netflix has released the first look at an upcoming film of Prince Andrew’s infamous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis.
The movie, called Scoop, will dramatise how the BBC Two programme secured the interview and looks set to imagine the drama behind the scenes as it unfolded.
The interview became one of the most talked about events of the year after Maitlis got Andrew to open up about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew claimed he was in Pizza Express in Woking on the day he was alleged to have had sex with the then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre.
The duke has subsequently paid a hefty financial settlement to Giuffre, formally ending a civil case brought against him in the US.
New photos from the Netflix film show Rufus Sewell, who portrays the duke, and Gillian Anderson, who plays Maitlis, walking the halls of Buckingham Palace.
Sewell is said to have spent about three hours in the make-up chair to become Prince Andrew, while Anderson’s portrayal of Maitlis is described by producers as “astonishing”, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
A second picture recreates the interview itself, while another photograph released shows Anderson as Maitlis apparently preparing to ask a question.
The interview was widely regarded as a “car crash” and the whole episode did huge damage to the prince’s reputation.
Netflix’s Scoop is based on the book “Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews” by former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister.
The film synopsis says it shows “the inside track of the women that broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the scoop of the decade”.
It also stars Billie Piper as McAlister, Keeley Hawes as Prince Andrew’s former private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, and Romola Garai as Esme Wren, who led Newsnight at the time of the interview. It is written by Peter Moffat, who wrote BBC One drama Silk.
Scoop will stream on Netflix some time in the spring.
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