OUR CRITICS
TV: Not a scoop
What was the point of Netflix’s behind-the-scenes re-enactment of the Prince Andrew interview?
by Imogen West-Knights
© BFA / ALAMY
We all remember the infamous Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew from a few years ago. Emily Maitlis giving him her steeliest look; the prince flubbing repeated opportunities to express empathy for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims; the thing about how he supposedly lost the ability to sweat; the starring role for the Pizza Express in Woking.
But while none of us have forgotten the prince’s lack of bodily secretions or his foray into high street cuisine, most of us did not know the story behind the interview. How exactly it was put together, and by whom. Now there is a film to rectify this. Scoop, starring Gillian Anderson as Maitlis and Billie Piper as the gutsy Newsnight booker Sam McAlister, alongside Rufus Sewell as Andrew, arrived on Netflix in April.