While Prince Andrew says he is determined to “clear his honor” letting it filter in a recent article from the Times that the Virginia Giuffre affair would have been “only half told”, Netflix is producing a film recounting the adventures surrounding her disastrous BBC interview in 2019, at the origin of the banishment of the “favorite son of the queen”.
“That day I was at home, I was with the kids, I took Beatrice to a pizzeria.” On Saturday November 16, 2019, in front of the BBC cameras, answering questions from Emily Maitlis from the featured show Newsnight, the Duke of York signs his true civil death warrant. Virginia Giuffre, the American who accuses him of having had intimate relations with her when she was only 17, will have little difficulty in denying it. The scandal takes on planetary dimensions, especially since Andrew has declared to keep his friendship for the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein who committed suicide to escape his trial.
Four days later, he announced that because of this affair, and with the permission of the queen, he was withdrawing from his public engagements. Proof that Victoria’s adage, Never explain, never complain – “Never explain or complain” – was good… More than three years after the events, Prince Andrew, who no longer fulfills any public commitments, has not regained his place within the Windsor clan while his calamitous interview Newsnight remains one of the most notoriously disastrous of the past decade.
Behind the scenes of a disastrous interview for Andrew
For all these reasons, British director Philip Martin – to whom we owe, among other things, the series Catherine the Great and the episode of Murder on the Orient Express from the Serie Hercule Poirot – has decided to bring the subject to the screen, with a feature film produced by Netflix, with a very explicit title: Scoop. It will be an adaptation of the memoirs of the former producer of NewsnightSam McAlister : Scoops : Behind The Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews – Scoops: Behind the scenes of the BBC’s most shocking interviews.
Philip Martin says he wants to “immerse the audience in the breathtaking sequence of events leading up to the interview with Prince Andrew, to tell a story about a search for answers, in a world of speculation and varied memories”. And he adds: “It’s a film about power, privilege, and how – whether in gleaming palaces or high-tech newsrooms – we judge what is true.”
The script takes the viewer through the negotiations that allowed the journalists to Newsnight to penetrate theestablishment of Buckingham, then the inner circle of the prince, the delicate negotiations, the rehearsals, and finally the interview itself.
While Andrew will be played by the disturbing Rufus Sewell – Old, Victoria, the pillars of the earth –, Gillian Anderson – Margaret Thatcher dans The Crown – will play presenter Emily Maitlis. Billie Piper- I Hate Suzie – will play the role of Sam McAlister, and Keely Hawes – Stonehouse – that of Amanda Thirsk, former private secretary to the Duke of York. Currently filming, the film should be on screens in early 2024. So be patient…