Two dramas from Prince Andrew’s crisis? It’s a feeding frenzy, say royal sources
Royal circles worry dramatic adaptations of Prince Andrew’s BBC interview about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein will cause further distress to Queen Elizabeth and her family.
Plans to dramatise Prince Andrew’s disastrous BBC Newsnight interview have been condemned as a “feeding frenzy” by royal sources, who have cast doubt on the accuracy of some “unwelcome” accounts.
Concerns have been raised in royal circles that book and film adaptations of Prince Andrew’s appearance will cause further distress to Queen Elizabeth, 96, and the royal family. Well-placed sources also claim that “dramatic licence” is being used.
Emily Maitlis, the former Newsnight presenter who conducted the 2019 interview in which Andrew was asked about his association with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and Sam McAlister, a former BBC producer who secured the interview, are both making film versions of events leading up to the broadcast.
McAlister’s film, Scoop, which will begin filming this year, is based on her account of events from her recently published book, Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.
A friend of the duke said: “This latest exploitation for financial gain of a book and now a film of what was, and remains, a very difficult time for the family, is unwelcome. Not least as the account of events leading up to and around the interview appear to have elements of dramatic licence.”
Royal sources have challenged the accuracy of some details in McAlister’s version of events. In an extract from her book, published in a tabloid newspaper last month, McAlister described her astonishment that no palace staff were present for the interview, except Amanda Thirsk, who was then Andrew’s private secretary.
“Apart from the equerry, Amanda is here with her deputy,” she wrote. “That’s it. No lawyers, no other royal staff. I’d expected a swarm of people to oversee it all. A tall white man comes into the room to say hello. He’s introduced as Donal McCabe, ‘communications secretary to the Queen’ … After speaking to a couple of people, he leaves.”
In contrast to McAlister’s account, royal sources have confirmed that McCabe remained in the room throughout the interview and made a recording of it. The discrepancy has raised concerns in royal circles about what other details might be “presented” as fact but altered for “dramatic licence in the retelling”.
Asked about the discrepancy, McAlister said: “If it’s conceivable that he was there and I didn’t see him, then they are not mutually exclusive.”
The story is being adapted by the screenwriter Peter Moffat, who wrote the BBC legal drama Silk.
Moffat has said the behind-the-scenes discussions between the BBC team, members of Andrew’s household and Princess Beatrice, who attended a meeting before the interview, “make for a very thrilling drama”.
Hugh Grant was recently linked to the production as a candidate to play Andrew, but distanced himself with a tweet saying he had never heard of it.
Maitlis, 51, is understood to be working with Blueprint Pictures, which made the BBC drama A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy.
According to reports, a Bafta-winning writer is attached to the project, which will be a three-part miniseries for a leading streaming service. Sources said Maitlis was working on the drama before it was announced last month that McAlister had sold the rights to adapt her book.
McAlister recently described Andrew as like “a bomb waiting to go off” and said: “Hearing the answers that he gave, each one worse than the last, was really an extraordinary experience that it’s still hard to believe actually happened.”
She has also said: “The bit before the camera starts is nine times out of 10 the most interesting part of the experience.”
In the 50-minute interview, during which the duke reportedly told the Queen was “a great success”, Andrew said he had “no recollection of ever meeting” Virginia Giuffre. This year he paid her a multi-million-pound settlement.
The backlash to the interview prompted Andrew, 62, to withdraw from royal duties, admitting that “the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work”.
Earlier this year, the Queen stripped him of all patronages, military titles and his HRH prefix amid concern at the damage his legal battle was inflicting on the monarchy.
A Covid diagnosis during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June kept him out of the public eye.
Sunday Times
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