Netflix Sets April Premiere for Prince Andrew Interview Drama 'Scoop'

Apparently, 2024 is shaping up to be the year of Prince Andrew, whether any of us want it to be or not. Two of the biggest streamers in the industry are prepping dramas based on the infamous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview that saw Queen Elizabeth's third son disastrously attempt to explain away his "friendship" with the American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Prime Video announced that the next installment of their Scandal-themed anthology series, titled A Very Royal Scandal, will tackle the story, with Michael Sheen (Good Omens) and Ruth Wilson (The Woman in the Wall) in the lead roles. But Netflix will get there first with Scoop, a buzzy prestige drama that is set to arrive in April. 

Titled Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal, the original interview aired on BBC Two on November 19, 2019. Though Andrew is reported to have initially believed the interview went well before it was broadcast, it was a disaster in which he contradicted previously released statements and made multiple glaring gaffes. During the conversation, he failed to show any remorse for his friendship with Epstein, could not explain why he continued to associate with him following his convictions for sexual offenses related to underage girls, or express basic sympathy for any of his victims. Andrew also awkwardly attempted to refute allegations that he himself had a sexual relationship with a young girl who had been trafficked by Epstein. And in doing so, he deployed a truly bizarre range of excuses, including that he had been at a party at a Pizza Express in Woking on the night the encounter with his alleged victim Virginia Giuffre was supposed to have taken place. (He also claimed he had a rare condition that meant he couldn't sweat, among other things.)

Rufus Sewell (The Diplomat) stars as the disgraced prince, continuing his trend of television roles that make me, as a fan, deeply uncomfortable (looking at you, The Man in the High Castle). But if its trailer and first images are anything to go by, Scoop appears to be very deliberately female-focused, spotlighting the tenacious journalists and producers who broke through the establishment of both the BBC and Buckingham Palace itself to land the scoop of the decade. It features a case of blockbuster actresses and seems very evidently not geared to telling Andrew's story through any kind of sympathetic or apologetic lens.

Gillian Anderson (Sex Education) stars as veteran journalist Emily Maitlis, the Newsnight presenter who conducted the interview. It won Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year awards at the 2020 RTS Television Journalism Awards, and basically led to the end of Andrew's career as a working royal. Banned from public appearances with the family except in cases where he could appear as a private citizen (his mother's funeral, for example), he was also stripped of many of his patronages and forbidden from styling himself as "His Royal Highness". 

Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie) plays BBC producer Sam McAlister, who secured the interview with Andrew and who wrote the book upon which this series is based. Other cast members include Keeley Hawes (Miss Austen) as Amanda Thirsk, former private secretary to Prince Andrew; Charity Wakefield (The Great) as Andrew's daughter, Princess Beatrice, Romola Garai (Vigil) as Newsnight editor Esme Wren, and Amanda Redman (Sexy Beast) as McAlister's mother. 

Here's the series' synopsis. 

Inspired by real events, Scoop is the inside account of the tenacious journalism that landed an earthshattering interview - Prince Andrew's infamous BBC Newsnight appearance. From the tension of producer Sam McAlister’s high stakes negotiations with Buckingham Palace, all the way to Emily Maitlis’ jaw dropping, forensic showdown with the Prince, SCOOP takes us inside the story, with the women who would stop at nothing to get it. To get an interview this big, you have to be bold.

Based on McAlister's real-life memoir, Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews, the series is directed by Philip Martin (The Crown). It is produced by Hilary Salmon and Radford Neville for The Lighthouse Film & Television, with Sanjay Singhal for Voltage TV.

“I want to put the audience inside the breathtaking sequence of events that led to the interview with Prince Andrew – to tell a story about a search for answers in a world of speculation and varying recollections," Martin said in a statement when the series was announced. It’s a film about power, privilege, and differing perspectives and how – whether in glittering palaces or hi-tech newsrooms – we judge what’s true."

Scoop will premiere on Netflix on Friday, April 5.