Michael Sheen to star as Prince Andrew alongside Ruth Wilson in Amazon drama based on Newsnight interview

An all-star solid will headline a brand new BBC and Amazon present about British journalist Emily Maitlis’s notorious 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew.

Michael Sheen (The Queen) will play the function of the UK’s disgraced Duke of York, whereas Ruth Wilson (The Affair) will painting in Maitlis, in a forthcoming, three-part drama titled A Very Royal Scandal.

This anthology collection has beforehand chronicled “The Thorpe Affair” – the intercourse scandal that ended Jeremy Thorpe’s political profession – in A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant. It’s second version, A Very British Scandal, centered on the divorce of socialite Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, performed by Claire Foy.

Manufacturing is at the moment underway in the UK and the present will observe “Emily Maitlis’s skilled and private journey as a Newsnight journalist, main up to her acclaimed interview with Prince Andrew”, in accordance to a Variety report.

Reacting to the announcement on Tuesday (21 November), Maitlis celebrated the show’s “exceptional cast” in a submit on X/Twitter.

In 2019, the previous Newsnight host questioned the controversial royal about his ties to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein as nicely as the character of his relationship with Virginia Guiffre – one among Epstein’s victims, who accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was 17.

Andrew vehemently denied the intercourse abuse allegations, finally reaching an out-of-court, multi-million pound settlement with Guiffre.

Within the aftermath of his catastrophic interview with Maitlis, the duke resigned from his function as a senior member of the royal household over his relationship with Epstein, the American financier who died in a New York jail whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking expenses.

Throughout the interview, which was described as a “automobile crash” on the time, Andrew made plenty of statements that have been extensively derided on the time,

Andrew informed Maitlis he couldn’t have had intercourse with Guiffre on the evening she accused him of assaulting her as a result of he had taken his daughter, Princess Beatrice, to a Pizza Categorical in Woking.

Elsewhere, he challenged Guiffre’s description that Andrew was “sweating profusely” on the evening of the alleged assault, explaining that he had a medical situation which made it “not possible for me to sweat”.

Earlier this yr, Maitlis mentioned she feared her Newsnight interview ended up “hurting” the duke’s daughters, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, in an op-ed forThe Times.

“What’s the obligation of care you owe to those that belief you with their tales – significantly if they’re in no place to reply again?” the 52-year-old wrote. “These have been issues I struggled with in the aftermath that also value me a good quantity of thought at this time.”

In February, it was introduced that Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell had been solid in a Netflix authentic movie about Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview.

The forthcoming film is based on former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister’s memoir Scoops: The BBC’s Most Surprising Interviews From Prince Andrew To Steven Seagal.

Netflix mentioned it’s going to take a look at “navigating Palace vetoes, to breaking by way of to Prince Andrew’s internal circle, the high-stakes negotiations and depth of rehearsal – to the jaw-dropping interview itself”.