Andrew gave Maitlis a tour of Buckingham Palace following the interview, thinking it was a success. However, he “stepped back” from public activities days after its transmission and has not returned. He settled out of court with Virginia Giuffre in 2022, paying her an undisclosed amount without admitting guilt.
Sewell, who wore makeup and prosthetics for four hours a day as the prince, sought “all of the contradictions” in Andrew. He saw a man whose self-image was shaped by a lifetime of respect from others and who played up to his tabloid image as a “naughty scamp” – “Randy Andy” in his bachelor days, “Air Miles Andy” as a British trade emissary.
Sewell said Andrew's self-image was “dependent on the other party acquiescing to the idea that he is the prince.” “In order to maintain the idea of himself, he needs someone to play along,” said the British actor, who played a mischievous ambassadorial spouse in Netflix's “The Diplomat”.
This fish finds himself out of his dish, gulping for air, during the interview because Emily Maitlis doesn't need to be unpleasant or aggressive to refuse to sign the contract. And he becomes an oxygen-deficient creature.”
Even viewers who have watched the original interview find the show's reproduction tense. “We prepared completely separately and there was no rehearsal,” Anderson remarked. When we shot the interview on our first day of work together, we sat across from each other on those chairs and the cameras rolled. So there was tension within.”
“Scoop” is the first of two interview-based TV dramas. Michael Sheen as Andrew and Ruth Wilson as Maitlis star in Amazon's rival miniseries "A Very Royal Scandal" later this year.
Anderson loves that “Scoop” has “four strong female leads in the ensemble.” Romola Garai plays “Newsnight” manager Esme Wren and Keeley Hawes plays Andrew's private secretary Amanda Thirsk. She advised the palace: “If this tells us anything, it would be that the royal family should never do an interview at all.”
But actually,” she said, “I think what is amazing and what stands out is the importance of independent journalism, to hold authority to account and to at least attempt to get some semblance of the truth.”
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