When Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, agreed to be interviewed on the BBC in November 2019, he likely didn’t expect it would one day inspire a feature film. But “Scoop,” which comes to Netflix on Friday, follows a TV musical and a documentary in depicting the 58-minute interview and its fallout. (Amazon is also producing an upcoming limited series.)
In the explosive conversation, Prince Andrew discussed his friendship with the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and denied allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl. Viewers were appalled by his comments, and British and international news media characterized the appearance as a PR disaster. In the following days, Prince Andrew announced he would step back from public life.
Though the interview was conducted by the journalist Emily Maitlis, “Scoop” emphasizes the work of Sam McAlister, the producer who secured it. The Netflix film is based on McAlister’s memoir, “Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews,” which was published in 2022.
Here’s what else to know about the interview and its fallout.
Why did the interview take place?
When Maitlis asked Prince Andrew on-camera why it was the right time to “speak out” and give a rare public interview, he replied: “Because there is no good time to talk about Mr. Epstein and all things associated.”
By November 2019, Prince Andrew was widely acknowledged as one of Epstein’s friends, with whom he was known to have vacationed and partied. In a 2015 civil case, Virginia Roberts Giuffre accused Epstein of forcing her to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew when she was 17. Buckingham Palace denied the accusation.
McAlister had been talking to Prince Andrew’s team about the prince appearing on “Newsnight,” an important BBC news program, for more than a year. In October 2018, Prince Andrew’s team suggested to McAlister that he might discuss his networking scheme for entrepreneurs, Pitch@Palace, on the show. She declined, later saying that “a puff piece” wasn’t the sort of story “Newsnight” would run.
According to McAllister, she met in May 2019 with, Amanda Thirsk, Prince Andrew’s private secretary at the time, to discuss a more substantial interview. Thirsk had one condition: There could be no questions about Epstein.
But in August 2019, Epstein died by suicide in prison while awaiting a sex-trafficking trial, and McAlister and Thirsk began discussing the need for Prince Andrew to explain the friendship.
What is ‘Newsnight’?
“Newsnight” has been running on the BBC since 1980, and incorporates investigative reporting with studio discussions about news and current affairs.
Its best known presenter is Jeremy Paxman, who hosted the show from 1989-2014, and was known for his combative interview style. Maitlis became the show’s lead presenter in 2019.
In 2023, the BBC announced that Newsnight would lose its dedicated reporting team, and the show would become “a debate, discussion and interview program.” On social media, Maitlis wrote: “Could the Prince Andrew interview have happened in this iteration of ‘Newsnight?’ Of course not.”
Who are Sam McAlister and Emily Maitlis?
McAlister worked as a criminal lawyer before spending 10 years as an interview producer and guest booker for “Newsnight.” She took a buyout from the BBC in 2021.
In her memoir, published the following year, she wrote that her strength was “persuading reluctant people to do things.” She is an executive producer of “Scoop.”
Maitlis is a journalist and broadcaster who joined the BBC in 2001, and became one of the corporation’s most well-known faces — and one of its highest paid too, according to a BBC report. She left in 2022, and currently co-hosts the current affairs podcast “The News Agents.”
Maitlis is also an executive producer on an upcoming three-part series dramatizing the Prince Andrew interview for Amazon Studios. Called “A Very Royal Scandal,” it stars Ruth Wilson as Maitlis, Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew and Joanna Scanlan as Thirsk.
Why was the interview so explosive?
Instead of distancing himself from Epstein in the interview, Prince Andrew said he didn’t regret their friendship because it led to “opportunities” that were “actually very useful.”
In December 2010, after Epstein had served time for soliciting a minor for prostitution, he was photographed in Central Park with Prince Andrew, who admitted he had stayed at Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion for several days because “it was a convenient place to stay.” When Maitlis asked about the many underage girls photographed leaving the house, Prince Andrew said: “As far as I was aware, they were staff.”
Then Maitlis brought up a photograph of Prince Andrew with his arm around the waist of Guiffre, the woman who accused him. The prince replied, “That’s me, but whether that’s my hand … I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken.”
The alibis he provided when asked about Giuffre’s claims were mocked by the press and viewers. He couldn’t have sweated profusely while dancing with Guiffre at a London nightclub as she claimed, he said, because on that day, he had taken his daughter, Princess Beatrice, to a pizza restaurant. He also “didn’t sweat at the time” because of a “peculiar medical condition,” he added.
What was the fallout?
For days after, Prince Andrew became a national figure of fun in Britain, but there was a serious side to the reaction, too. Lisa Bloom, a lawyer who represented five of Epstein’s victims, described Prince Andrew as “utterly lacking in compassion.”
Soon, Prince Andrew announced he was stepping back from his public duties as a member of the royal family.