Stream It Or Skip It: ‘A Very Royal Scandal’ On Prime Video, A Dramatization Of Prince Andrew’s Controversial 2019 Interview About His Association With Jeffrey Epstein

The 2019 interview England’s Prince Andrew gave to Emily Maitlis about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and accusations he had sex with a then-underage woman proved to be disastrous to the Duke of York. A new limited series dramatizes the interview and shows some context around how Maitlis and the prince ended up under the lights in a room at Buckingham Palace.

A VERY ROYAL SCANDAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An antique clock ticks. Someone is ushered down a hallway. A woman takes a taxi to Buckingham Palace. “14 November 2019.”

The Gist: A Very Royal Scandal is a dramatization of the disastrous 2019 interview England’s Prince Andrew (Michael Sheen) had with Emily Maitlis (Ruth Wilson) on the BBC program Newsnight. The interview was about the Duke of York’s association with convicted pedophile/sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein (John Hopkins) and the accusations by Virginia Giuffre that the two of them had sex when she was 17, her having been trafficked to England by Epstein for the sole purpose of pairing with Andrew.

The narrative jumps back and forth, starting with Maitlis rushing to get to Buckingham Palace for the interview, with Andrew riffing about the cameras while waiting for her. We also go back to 2011, when Andrew is first advised that Giuffre’s accusations are going to be published by the Daily Mail. His reaction is denial as well as anger, but we also see him go to Epstein in 2010, looking for some help to pay off debts incurred by his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson (Claire Rushbrook).

Maitlis, who has a reputation for being a tough, showboating interviewer, is at first denied a talk with Andrew, but the prince’s personal secretary, Amanda Thrask (Joanna Scanlan), convinces him that confronting the accusations head on is the best. Andrew sets out to do an on-camera interview, which angers his press secretary so much he resigns right before Andrew fires him, and chooses Maitlis to do it. In a palace meeting between Maitlis and her producers and the prince, the royal asks the trio of journalists if they’ve ever been abused, a question that makes them scratch their heads. But he agrees to the interview.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A Very Royal Scandal is considered in the same “family” as the series A Very English Scandal and A Very British Scandal. Netflix viewers might also recall the 2024 movie Scoop, which covered the very same ground and starred Gillian Anderson (as Maitlis) and Rufus Sewell (as Prince Andrew).

Our Take: Maitlis is an executive producer of A Very Royal Scandal, so it’s pretty easy to see what perspective the three-part series, written by Jeremy Brock, is going to have. It’s not necessarily going to make Maitlis look heroic, but it’s going to show the run-up to and aftermath of the interview between Maitlis and Andrew, giving some context into her career and life as well as the consequences that put Andrew in such a compromising position.

Let’s talk about how Andrew is portrayed first. Sheen is proficient at making reviled figures empathetic, and he definitely does that with Andrew. In on scene, he asks Thrask how people see him, because he knows that he’s portrayed as the joke of the royal family. He feels he constantly has to defend himself as one of the few royals who actually saw combat and worked a “real job.” When he screams to his press secretary, “I fought in the fucking Falklands!” Sheen communicates both Andrew’s frustration and desperation at the same time. He so wants to be taken seriously, which is why he feels going on TV to defend himself is the right thing to do (It wasn’t).

Given the fact that a one-hour interview is going to be incorporated into a 3-hour limited series, there is sure to be a lot of information about Maitlis, especially pieces of her past, including the time she had a stalker, and how Andrew got stripped of his royal responsibilities after the interview aired. All of it should be interesting to watch, especially the interview scenes where Sheen and Wilson directly square off.

Sex and Skin: Nothing besides the accusations from Giuffre.

Parting Shot: While riding horses with his daughter Beatrice (Honor Swinton Byrne), Andrew responds to her query about if he’s ready for the next day’s interview by saying, “People forget… I’ve been to war. I promise you, I’m gonna blow this out of the water.”

Sleeper Star: Joanna Scanlan shows just how influential Amanda Thirsk was over Andrew, displaying loyalty and honesty at the same time.

Most Pilot-y Line: For some reason, Andrew races Amanda and says, “Last one there is a fatty!”

Our Call: STREAM IT. A Very Royal Scandal takes an event from the very recent past and gives it some fascinating context, aided by good performances from Sheen, Wilson and Scanlan.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.