Royals Behaving Badly: 'Scoop' vs 'A Very Royal Scandal'

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nineteen, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, second son of Queen Elizabeth II, gave a damning interview to the BBC’s Emily Maitlis about his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In the spring of 2024, Netflix gave us Scoop, a feature-length movie about the interview; now, not six months later, comes A Very Royal Scandal, Amazon Studio's three-part dramatization, the third entry in an anthology that includes A Very English Scandal (Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw) and A Very British Scandal (Paul Bettany and Claire Foy). 

Journalist Emily Maitlis: "For most people, Prince Andrew and I are the story, but not Epstein’s victims.” 

There's one glaring difference between this and previous A Very ... Scandal entries, which were set 40 and 50 years ago, respectively. Epstein’s crimes are recent, well-protected, and egregious. How many of his victims will find justice as evidence is hidden and the perpetrators shelter behind privilege and wealth? Other than continuing to keep their fight in the public consciousness, what did Prime Video cover in three one-hour episodes that Netflix, with its 100-minute length, couldn’t/didn’t? Let’s look at both productions and what they offer. 

Both adaptations have great casts, are beautifully directed and produced, and each is based on a book written by a production team member. Scoop was adapted by Peter Moffat & Geoff Bussetil, directed by Philip Martin (Catherine The Great), and is based on Scoops by Sam MacAlister, portrayed in the film by Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie). A Very Royal Scandal is adapted by Jeremy Brock, directed by Julian Jarrold (The Crown), and is based on Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News by Emily Maitlis, portrayed in the film by Ruth Wilson (The Woman in the Wall).

In terms of which project has the more inside track, Scandal has the edge, as Maitlis is one half of the infamous duo around which the story revolves. However, Scoop has the view from the outside, close to the action but not directly affected: Sam is a junior producer at the BBC on the Newsnight team, whose job it is to make the interviews “get” for Maitilis to grill live on TV. In the hierarchy, technically, she outranks Matilis. However, in practice, she is very much the junior. It doesn’t help that McAllister, a working-class single parent, is despised and feared by most of her colleagues, who are from an Oxbridge background. (One of them describes her as “very Daily Mail.”) 

When Sam struts into the office late, in spike heels and dark glasses, coffee cup in one hand and phone buzzing away in the other, she clearly means business. She is very good at what she does, tracking down people who don’t want to be found/don’t have press secretaries and booking them for interviews. Sam has been keeping an eye on Epstein for years, ever since she and photographer Jae Donnelly (Conor Swindells) collaborated to photograph Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew in Central Park, where she heard there is a “warehouse” of young women nearby who are constantly in and out of Epstein’s house.

Scoop’s Emily Maitlis, played by Gillian Anderson, is cool and calm, an ice queen with years of experience. (Her whippet accompanies her to work.) Finding herself, the dog, Sam, and producer Esmé Wren (an almost unrecognizable Romola Garai) in a studio, she comments: “Three women and a whippet. You wouldn’t have seen that when I started.”

In contrast, Wilson plays Maitlis with that tinge of “slight instability that could suddenly topple without warning” that she does so well. Her Maitilis is an insomniac and an avid runner, stressed and driven. In this version, Sam is just one of the team, a relatively minor role played by Clare Calbraith (Home Fires), who moves in a pack with Esme Wren (Lydia Leonard), Stewart McLean (Éanna Hardwicke), and Jake Morris (Alexander Owen). Amazon also includes Emily’s genuinely lovely husband, Mark Gwynn (Nicholas Burns), who runs the household and does most of the parenting.

In both versions, we first meet Prince Andrew at a Buckingham Palace event, his Pitch@Palace initiative, which brings together young entrepreneurs and possible investors. He’s shown as a genial host cracking jokes. Both Scandal’s Michael Sheen (Good Omens) and Scoop’s Rufus Sewell (The Diplomat) play Andrew as a vain, cosseted, aging man born into privilege and unaware of the world outside it. He is no longer Randy Andy, the handsome young prince and military hero of the Falklands War. 

Scoop shows Andrew as very attached to an extensive collection of stuffed toys and teddies and gets angry when a servant puts one in the wrong place; the Andrew of Scandal yearns for the glory days of the Falkland War when he was a hero. However, there are differences, most obviously in that Sewell manages to make his Andrew look genuinely ugly, while Sheen, in the vein of The Crown, gives his prince an unearned glow-up. Director Julian Jarrold seems at his strongest when the action is on the Royals, skillfully evoking the atmosphere of The Crown, with the familiar Scottish scenery, dimly lit rooms with oppressive furnishings,  clueless royals, and Palace intrigue. 

But let’s get down to the interview. Each production covers different aspects of the same negotiations as Virginia Roberts Giuffre enters the picture, the (fake?/not fake?) photograph of her and Andrew drops, and Epstein dies. The BBC is adamant they are the Palace’s best hope, while the Palace frets about complex protocol and appropriate questions. Scoop leans into Sam befriending the Prince’s shy secretary, Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), whereas Scandal focuses on Amanda (Joanna Scanlan) dealing with Sir Edward Young (Alex Jennings), the Queen’s private secretary (who outranks the Second Son Prince's Secretary), there for damage control. 

Watching the scenes back-to-back (or back-to-back-to-back with the real thing) is a hall of mirrors, everyone hitting their marks with precision. The Andrews ramble on, eating up valuable time and attempting to explain why he stayed friends- not close friends!- even though he stayed in Epstein’s house! and threw a party on Epstein’s release from jail! He denies knowing Guiffre and attempts to produce an alibi, the party at the infamous Pizza Express in Woking, and the ridiculous story about being unable to sweat after the trauma of the Falklands War. This is the scene to watch, no matter which version, as Anderson, Sewell, Wilson, and Sheen all hit it out of the park.

Finally, Andrew admits he’d been wrong to stay with Epstein after his first conviction – Andrew had let the side down. Was there anything left unsaid, Emily asks. No. No apology, no empathy or compassion for Epstein’s victims, and he repeats that he never knew Virginia and has nothing to apologize for – nothing happened. The interview ends as Palace staff gush about how wonderful Andrew was, while the team is elated. The interview air date is set for next Saturday. In Scoop, Sam goes home on the bus, watching a group of young girls squealing and sharing photos on their phones, those this move is trying to protect.

Where Scoop ends soon after the interview, Scandal stays with the Royals, and Andrew is pleased that the interview will air at 9 p.m., “the intelligent person’s slot.” (How would he know?) He starts to have doubts when his press secretary, Donal McCabe (Sam Troughton), announces it was a car crash and the blame will fall on Amanda. But come Saturday night, Andrew attends a shooting party; while his family watches the interview, his daughters cry, and Amanda is indeed fired. He receives a call from the Queen that evening, and we can only guess what she has to say. (Despite being more royal-focused, Scandal is very discreet in that neither the Queen nor Prince Charles, as he then was, ever appears.)

The Palace Public Affairs team, concerned that Andrew would impact the Queen’s Jubilee, stripped him of all royal duties and titles. But that's nothing compared to being smuggled out of the palace to evade the American lawyers representing Guiffre trying to extradite Andrew to stand trial in the U.S., which must be avoided at all costs. Further humiliation follows at Beatrice’s wedding when he is asked to remove himself from a photo of the bride and groom with the royal grandparents. He is also banned from the Jubilee celebrations, with the press office saying he has COVID. Our last glimpse of him is as he watches the Jubilee on television, wearing his military uniform and staring out the window like a sad ghost. 

Meanwhile, in a reminder of who is behind this series, Emily is interviewed by an American TV reporter who admires her “unvarnished authenticity.” However, she keeps returning to the moment when Andrew asked if anyone on the team had experienced sexual assault. She’s still dwelling on that after she won a British TV Award as Network Presenter of the Year. Matilis reveals she still carries trauma from being stalked for years. Her experience interviewing Andrew makes her rethink her priorities. Scandal ends with Maitlis walking away from the BBC after a twenty-year career considering how to make the world a better place. Two different takes, but the same moral point of a man's behavior inspires women to step up.

Royal Remnants:

• Emily Maitlis left the BBC to start a radio news podcast. Serving as an advisor for A Very Royal Scandal is her first foray into drama.
• Sam McAlister took a voluntary redundancy from the BBC and is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, specializing in negotiations.
• Queen Elizabeth II paid Andrew’s legal settlement with Guiffre, estimated at approximately £12 million.
• Prince Andrew was allowed to attend some of his mother's funeral events upon her passing, as well as some of the more formal coronation events, but never in military uniform. Since his mother's passing, King Charles has slowly removed his remaining royal privileges. He is still eighth in the royal line of succession.

All three episodes of A Very Royal Scandal are streaming on Prime Video; Scoop is streaming on Netflix.