Notes on a scandal
Rufus Sewell plays Prince Andrew in a film about his car-crash Newsnight interview…
In November 2019, Prince Andrew gave an interview to the BBC that will go down as one of the most infamous moments in recent royal history.
He’d hoped that talking to Emily Maitlis about his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein might ease the controversy that had built since Epstein’s death earlier that year.
Yet when the interview was shown on Newsnight, it triggered a wave of criticism from the British public. And now the story behind the infamous event will be told in a star-studded Netflix film. ‘The idea of doing a film about the interview might seem strange, because everyone’s seen it,’ says Rufus Sewell, who plays Prince Andrew. ‘But it’s really the story of the women at Newsnight who put him in front of the camera. It’s not Andrew’s story.’ Emily (Gillian Anderson) grabbed the headlines for her skilful questions, yet it was producer Sam
Mcalister (Billie Piper) who secured the interview by nurturing a relationship with Andrew’s private secretary, Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes). When the royal agreed to speak to Emily, she pressed him over accusations that, on 10 March 2001, he’d had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 years old, after she’d been trafficked by Epstein.
Insight
Sam and Newsnight editor Esme Wren (Romola Garai) were shocked when the royal claimed Virginia’s story couldn’t be true as he’d taken his daughter to a birthday party at Pizza Express in Woking on that date.
‘It’s a gripping insight into how Prince Andrew thought the interview was a good idea,’ explains Rufus. ‘He thought it had gone great.’