Drama shows Duke of York insisting Pizza Express alibi kept in Newsnight interview

A Very Royal Scandal tells the story of Prince Andrew’s conversation with Emily Maitlis from her perspective

The Duke of York has been shown insisting that his Pizza Express alibi was included in his disastrous Newsnight interview in the latest drama to document the furore.
A Very Royal Scandal, released next month, tells the story of the Duke’s interview with Emily Maitlis over three episodes.
Unlike Scoop, the Netflix film on the same subject, this version is told from Maitlis’s perspective, which promises to be markedly different.
A teaser shown at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday shows the Duke, played by Michael Sheen, urging Maitlis to ask him about his response to claims that he had sex with 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre.
When the cameras stop filming, his private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, runs over to him.
“Sir, the alibis, you didn’t mention those,” she says. “I do think it would be advisable to have those included.”
The Duke then tells Maitlis, played by Ruth Wilson: “You didn’t ask me about my alibis as discussed; the sweating and my visit to Pizza Express.”
Thirsk, played by Joanna Scanlan, adds: “I must insist that we include these details, they are material to his Royal Highness’s defence. We were expecting to be asked about them.”
Maitlis responds that they “will absolutely do it now” before the interview is resumed.
The Duke claimed that he could not have been with Ms Giuffre on that particular night in March 2001, because he had taken his daughter, Princess Beatrice, to a birthday party at Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey.
He also rejected her claim that he sweated profusely when they danced at a nightclub, insisting he was unable to sweat at the time as a result of trauma caused by serving in the Falklands War.
Maitlis has previously revealed that the BBC considered rejecting the request to restart the interview but that the Duke was “convinced” it would get him off the hook.
In the event, the bizarre alibi prompted ridicule.
The Duke also failed to express any regret over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, or empathy for his victims.
The fallout brought an abrupt end to his royal career.
Maitlis, who has since left the BBC, is an executive producer on the Prime Video series.
She is expected to offer a different take on the interview to that portrayed in Scoop, which was released in April and based on a book written by Sam McAlister.
McAlister, a former BBC producer, helped negotiate the November 2019 interview but there were tensions behind the scenes when she depicted herself as the mastermind behind its success.
BBC sources were understood to have quietly seethed at what they perceived to be Ms McAlister taking the lion’s share of the credit when the interview’s success was considered a team effort.
Hannah Blyth, head of TV at Prime Video, said of A Royal Scandal: “It’s really focused on Emily’s story and the power of journalism so she’s very involved.
“It’s a three-parter – we’re able to give it that breathing room – and it’s from Emily’s perspective.”
She added of the series: “It’s really seeing what goes into the journalist process and it’s her experience of the events as well and how she felt about it becoming the story when her role there was to shine a light on the women.”
Blyth urged against comparing the different versions of events.
“It’s always about the storytelling and they’re going to be different,” she added.
The Duke insists that he has no recollection of meeting Ms Giuffre and has always denied her claims.