How the famous interview with Prince Andrew came about

Picture the scene. It's November 2019 and I'm sitting in Buckingham Palace in England. I'm sitting on an ornate gold chair leaning against the wall of the South Drawing Room, staring nervously at the slightly frayed but elegant red and gold carpeting. The room is larger than most London apartments and I'm sitting just five feet behind the chair of the Queen's “favorite son,” Prince Andrew. He's sitting with his back to me and tapping his left foot repeatedly on the palace floor.

In my field of vision is the renowned BBC News evening Journalist Emily Maitlis, about to conduct the interview of a lifetime about Prince Andrew's friendship with notorious sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and the sexual assault allegations made against him by Virginia Giuffre. It's an interview that will effectively bring down a prince. The atmosphere is electric. There is a deep silence throughout the television crew. The lights are set, the cameras are ready, the producers and palace staff are completely motionless.

And then it starts…

What followed was a master class in how not to answer questions in an interview. In case you didn't see it, spoiler alert: things didn't go well for Prince Andrew. During those 48 minutes, the Duke of York gave answers that could have spawned a thousand memes. He said he couldn't have committed the alleged offenses because he had been at a Pizza Express in the town of Woking with his daughter; he had a medical condition that meant he couldn't have sweated while dancing in a nightclub with Giuffre; and he didn't regret staying with Epstein after the latter was convicted of sex offenses because it was a “comfortable place to stay.” Just four days after the interview aired, following worldwide condemnation of his answers, the same palace issued a statement saying Prince Andrew was stepping down from his public role and had been effectively fired by his own mother, the Queen. Because of the power of that interview, the power of journalism, he is still a pariah nearly five years later.

So how did this interview come about and why did he agree? It is still hard to believe that he agreed, even though it is my job as a booker at News eveningConvincing people to come on the show. Honestly, it was a thankless task most of the time – endless rejections, often working on something for months only to fail at the final hurdle.

This interview was the culmination of over a year of negotiations, palace visits, hopes against hope, countless emails and eternal optimism. But I'll be honest: I never thought he would say yes.

But he did it.

And then, four years later, I am sitting in Buckingham Palace again. Only this time it is an exquisitely reconstructed palace, on a film set, somewhere outside of London. And Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis are in
the room again, only now it is the otherwise exquisitely chiseled actor Rufus Sewell (after hours of prosthetics) and the iconic Gillian Anderson as the fictional prince and presenter. We are on the set of the Netflix film scoopbased on my book. It's beyond my wildest dreams. Billie Piper plays me – gorgeously decked out in my everyday clothes (think black pleather, faux fur, snakeskin boots, oodles of lip gloss, a huge purse, even bigger sunglasses) and shaking her blonde curls (wig) in the fake room in the screen version of my life.

There's a scene in the film where I'm chatting with my mom after a particularly stressful day at the office (well, Billie is chatting with my mom, actress Amanda Redman), and she asks me a crucial question: “Is this important?” And, by God, that job and those interviews, they were important.

This kind of journalism – holding powerful people accountable, asking the tough questions and pursuing the truth without bias – is more important than ever. And it has never been more at risk than it is today. News evening itself is now a shorter programme, and all the BBC journalists portrayed in our film now have other jobs (including myself). Every day there is a new story about job cuts and the threat to serious journalism. It is the sad irony that the global success of scoop comes at a time when such stories are more at risk than ever.

Our film is a tribute to the BBC, to the team of News eveningto Emily Maitlis and to the brilliant editor at the time, Esme Wren (played by Romola Garai). And to the journalists who made it all possible.

It is a salutary reminder of the power and importance of journalism and truth in these uncertain times – for the BBC and the countless journalists, like me, fighting behind the scenes to hold power and democracy to account.

Every day, journalists from all over the world contact me and tell me that Scoop inspired them and made them feel like they had to keep going.

I'm proud of our film, proud of what we all accomplished. I'm grateful that Netflix decided to bring this story to life for the world. If you value this kind of responsibility, this kind of truth-seeking, then please watch the film.

Otherwise, those in power will sleep better at night.

This story first appeared in an August single issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine and subscribe, click here.