Michael Sheen To Play Prince Andrew In Series About Explosive Newsnight Interview
Actor Michael Sheen is set to play Prince Andrew in a new Amazon series based on the royal’s turbulent 2019 Newsnight interview.
The explosive interview saw Prince Andrew face sex-trafficking allegations with Jeffrey Epstein and resulted in the royal stepping back from royal duties and paying a financial settlement to his alleged victim, Virginia Giuffre, who was 17 at the time of the incident.
Luther actress Ruth Wilson will star alongside Sheen as journalist Emily Maitlis who interviewed the prince over his connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
The three-part series – A Very Royal Scandal – will follow Maitlis’s ‘professional and personal journey as a Newsnight journalist leading up to her acclaimed interview with Prince Andrew’, according to the studio.
The 53-year-old broadcaster wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Blimey. First time I’ve seen this in print. What an exceptional cast.”
The cast also includes Joanna Scanlan as Andrew’s ex-private secretary Amanda Thirsk, Alex Jennings as the late Queen Elizabeth II’s private secretary Sir Edward Young and Eanna Hardwicke as Newsnight editor Stewart Maclean.
However, the series – written by The Last King Of Scotland writer Jeremy Brock and directed by Becoming Jane’s Julian Jarrold – isn’t the only work we’ll have on our screens about the explosive interview.
A Netflix film about the interview, called Scoop, is in the reportedly in the works, with Maitlis portrayed by Sex Education star Gillian Anderson and The Man In The High Castle actor Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew.