It’s tempting to roll your eyes at Prime Video’s new series A Very Royal Scandal . Yet another reproduction of that fateful Newsnight Prince Andrew interview , less than five years after it happened? Haven’t we already gone over this – not just in countless documentaries, but also in Netflix’s disappointing film, Scoop , released as recently as April? Ruth Wilson and Michael Sheen disagree – and not just because they’re the stars. “This is a story that is still alive in certain ways,” says Sheen, whose chameleonic acting powers turn him into a commandeering but buffoonish Prince Andrew.
“There are frustrations around there not being a court case. There are clearly people who would rather it all went away. It’s about power and it’s important that the issues that this brings up are aired as much as possible.
The one thing we can do is keep telling the story, get it out there, don’t let it be brushed under the rug. Keep bringing the issues up, don’t let what happened to these people be forgotten or ignored.” Wilson, who plays formidable journalist Emily Maitlis in the series, agrees.
“These issues haven’t gone away. Why wait 10 years to talk about it again?” The “issues” they’re referring to are, of course, the allegations of sexual assault and battery against the Prince. Virginia Giuffre says she was 17 when she was introduced to and forced to have sex with Prince Andrew by convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein , whose friendship wit.