A Very Royal Scandal, review: Maitlis’s version of Prince Andrew scoop is a bad episode of The Crown
Welcome to Emily Maitlis: The Movie. Well, to be accurate, A Very Royal Scandal (Amazon Prime Video) is a three-part TV series, but you get the idea. A dramatisation of her famous Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, the tone is summed up by a US interviewer who says to Maitlis: “Tell us, Emily, how does it feel to take down a member of the monarchy?”
This is the second recreation of the 2019 encounter that proved so disastrous for the Duke of York, and it definitely feels like one too many. Why are we seeing this again when anyone who wants to revisit the actual interview can do so on YouTube? Who cares about the planning meetings and the editing and Maitlis worrying about what to wear (she decides on trousers and “sexy heels”)?
The first drama, Netflix’s Scoop, was adapted from a memoir by Newsnight booker Sam McAlister and made her the plucky heroine. A Very Royal Scandal is executive produced by Maitlis, and poor Sam barely gets a look-in.
The focus on the BBC side is purely Maitlis, at work and at home. She is played by Ruth Wilson, who is less fun in the role than Scoop’s Gillian Anderson. She mimics the presenter mainly by dropping her voice to a baritone, which sounds very odd until you get used to it.
This version of Maitlis is a political animal - “Guess what, the ERG are destroying Theresa May’s EU withdrawal!” is not a line you’ll find in many Amazon Prime dramas - and a forensic journalist, but the drama is at pains to show that she’s not the ice queen we saw in Scoop. Instead, she’s a Bridget Jones-style mess until the camera starts rolling, forever flustered and juggling her home life (her husband is portrayed as useless), sitting in BBC meetings with pink curlers in her hair.
Episode one deals with bagging the interview, aided by Prince Andrew’s well-meaning but hapless aide, Amanda Thirsk (Joanna Scanlan). Episode two is the interview itself, which most of us can recite by heart now; we learn from this retelling that Andrew’s most attention-grabbing claims - the inability to sweat, the Pizza Express in Woking - did not feature in the original interview, but were added afterwards at Andrew’s request. Episode three is the aftermath, as Andrew’s life falls apart and Maitlis is celebrated.
Where Scoop was made as entertainment, an underdog story paced as a thriller, A Very Royal Scandal is more serious and wider in scope. It goes further into the allegations against Andrew, whom we see meeting Jeffrey Epstein, and the Palace’s attempts to protect him from legal action. When his team learn that he’s about to be served papers by Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers, they smuggle him out of the house at dawn in his pyjamas.
There are also more scenes of Royal family life in all its dysfunction. Michael Sheen makes little attempt to physically inhabit the role but leans into Andrew’s petulant, unpleasant side. The first words we hear him utter, to an unfortunate lackey, are: “F--- off.” Andrew is a pompous mummy’s boy who can’t let a day go by without reminding everyone that he served in the Falklands, and is driven by a need for money to pay off his ex-wife’s debts (Claire Rushbrook plays Sarah Ferguson as a pathetic character).
His daughters are sweet and steadfastly loyal, but Charles - not seen on camera - is heard to be furious about the interview. Andrew is furious back: “Damaging the Firm’s reputation? He can talk, Mr Tampon. I fought for the country, all he did was talk to the roses and shag his f---ing mistress.”
The zingiest lines go to the late Queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young (Alex Jennings), although only he can say how accurately he is portrayed, and whether he is really the type to say: “The Royal Family is unstable enough without one of them being accused of kiddie-fiddling!” while describing the interview as “a clusterf--- worthy of the Kardashians”.
These scenes, perhaps because they are reminiscent of The Crown and contain flashes of humour, are more watchable than the self-congratulatory moments with Maitlis and her BBC colleagues. Of course, Maitlis has now left the corporation, and has the opportunity with this script to get a few things off her chest. When her eye-rolling during a political interview leads to a complaint, she huffs that “good old Humphrys” and “good old Paxo” wouldn’t have been pulled up on the same thing.
As with Scoop, there is a walk-on role for her dog. Perhaps we’ll get a third iteration of this story soon, from the whippet’s point of view.
On Amazon Prime Video from September 19