A Very Royal Scandal: Michael Sheen to play Prince Andrew in Amazon series about Newsnight interview

Welsh actor Michael Sheen will star as Prince Andrew in a series based on the explosive Newsnight interview.

Sheen is well known for his convincing portrayals of real people – having played former prime minister Tony Blair, the journalist David Frost and the football manager Brian Clough.

Ruth Wilson will take on the role of Emily Maitlis, the journalist who grilled the Duke of York over his relationship with late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in November 2019.

The three-part Amazon Studios series will be called A Very Royal Scandal.

The studio has said it will follow Maitlis’s “professional and personal journey as a Newsnight journalist leading up to her acclaimed interview with Prince Andrew”.

The show is in production in the UK.

Maitlis, who left Newsnight to host The News Agents podcast with former BBC journalists Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall, is an executive producer on the production.

The 53-year-old broadcaster wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Blimey. First time I’ve seen this in print. What an exceptional cast.”

The series is written by The Last King Of Scotland writer Jeremy Brock and directed by Becoming Jane’s Julian Jarrold.

The cast also includes Joanna Scanlan as Prince Andrew’s ex-private secretary Amanda Thirsk, Alex Jennings as the late Queen’s private secretary Sir Edward Young, and Eanna Hardwicke as BBC Newsnight editor Stewart Maclean.

Read more:
Prince Andrew interview branded ‘disastrous’ and ‘excruciating’
Just 6% believe Prince Andrew’s over Epstein

A Very Royal Scandal is produced by Blueprint Television for Amazon Studios, with Karen Thrussell, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Diarmuid McKeown, Mr Brock and Mr Jarrold as executive producers, and Josh Hyams serving as a producer on the series.

Maitlis has already been an executive producer of a Channel 4 documentary about the interview called Andrew: The Problem Prince.

A Netflix film adaptation of the interview is also in the works called Scoop.

In that version, Maitlis is played by Sex Education star Gillian Anderson while The Man In The High Castle actor Rufus Sewell appears as Andrew.

The Netflix adaption is based on former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister’s memoir Scoops: The BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews From Prince Andrew To Steven Seagal.