Billie Piper stars in the new Prince Andrew Netflix drama Scoop (Picture: PA)
Netflix’s latest original film Scoop stars Billie Piper and Gillian Anderson and covers the story of how the BBC secured that infamous Prince Andrew interview.
Set in the run-up to that November night in 2019, Piper stars as Sam McAlister, the Newsnight producer who spent a year behind the scenes, working tirelessly to get the Duke of York in front of Emily Maitlis.
The film is available on Netflix from April 5, 2024, with its controversial subject matter expected to make it one of Netflix’s most popular April releases in the UK.
While it’s based on McAlister’s memoir, titled Scoops: Behind the Scenes, artistic license has obviously been taken, while some scenes seem almost too good, or too convenient, to be true.
So, what’s the truth behind some of Scoop’s biggest moments?
Did Prince Andrew’s PR expert quit on the spot?
The interview with Emily Maitlis caused Prince Andrew’s PR expert to resign (Picture: PA)
A scene takes place in Scoop during which Prince Andrew’s public relations expert Jason Stein finds out that the Prince’s private secretary, Amanda Thrisk, is planning on organising an interview for the Prince with Newsnight.
Angered and shocked, Stein quits on the spot, shouting ‘I’m out!’, having planned to organise much softer, friendlier interviews in order to improve the Prince’s public image.
In real life, however, Stein’s resignation was apparently a little more tactful. He’d been hired just weeks before the interview and resigned in Prince Andrew’s office ‘by mutual consent’ after hearing it was to take place.
Does Emily Maitlis own a dog called Moody?
Yes, Emily Maitlis does have a dog called Moody! (Picture: Netflix)
In Scoop, it’s shown that Emily Maitlis owns a whippet called Moody, who accompanies her while she’s jogging and even comes to the BBC Newsnight studios before the interview with Prince Andrew.
If you can believe it, Maitlis does in fact own a whippet whose name is Moody, and she has been known to bring him to work. A BBC insider has revealed that Maitlis loves the dog dearly and that Moody is known around BBC offices.
Maitlis gave her dog the nickname ‘Moods’ and is a regular star of her Instagram page.
Does Prince Andrew have an obsession with teddy bears?
It apparently took a whole day to learn what to do with Prince Andrew’s stuffed toy collection (Picture: BBC)
You read that correctly. In Scoop, it’s shown that Prince Andrew still had a sizeable collection teddy bears and stuffed toys. In one scene, he scolds an assistant after she puts one of them back in the wrong place on his bed.
In 2022, it was reported by The Sun that the Prince had a collection of 72 teddies and plushies, and that it took a whole day for staff to be trained on where they needed placing to keep Prince Andrew happy.
Charlotte Briggs, a maid who worked for the Royal Family in the 1990s, told the paper: ‘As soon as I got the job, I was told about the teddies and it was drilled into me how he wanted them. I even had a day’s training. Everything had to be just right. It was so peculiar.’
Was Prince Andrew actually friends with Jimmy Savile?
It’s not been confirmed whether Prince Andrew was friends with Jimmy Savile (Picture: Swns)
In the Netflix drama, Prince Andrew is speaking with Emily Maitlis off-camera when he says: ‘I don’t know why everyone’s so upset about my friendship with Jeffrey Epstein – I knew Jimmy Savile so much better.’
However, it’s not known whether the Prince and the late disgraced TV presenter knew each other. The Prince did help out on an episode of Savile’s series Jim’ll Fix It, when an eight-year-old girl visited the HMS Cottesmore.
That episode of Jim’ll Fix It was filmed all the way back in 1994, and was among the final episodes produced for the show which finished later that same year.
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