Less than five years after Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis grilled Prince Andrew about his friendship with the paedophile sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and the specific claim that a 17-year-old girl was forced to have sex with him on three occasions, allegations he has repeatedly denied, the infamous interview and events leading up to it have been dramatised by Netflix. No surprise there.
Less than five years after Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis grilled Prince Andrew, the infamous interview has been dramatised by Netflix. No surprise there Keeley Hawes is Andrew's mumsy private secretary, Amanda Thirsk. Romola Garai plays the fierce Newsnight editor Esme Wren. And brassy Sam McAlister, the programme's interview booker whose tenacity landed the prize catch, is played, splendidly, by Billie Piper.
McAlister is a working-class single mum who eats kebabs, travels by bus and relies on her own mother to care for her teenage son when she's at work. She is not part of the club. Peter Moffat's script is at its most mischievous with its depiction of an emotionally-arrested prince, obsessing about his teddy bears, and guffawing about the media interest in his dealings with Epstein, when 'I knew Jimmy Savile so much better'.
Scoop is never more electrifying than when it finally arrives at the only part of the story we already know intimately, the interview itself