According to royal insiders, there are concerns that “unwelcome” competitor attempts to dramatise the Duke’s Newsnight appearance may distort the facts.
The “feeding frenzy” to take credit for the BBC’s big discovery in 2019 is expected to result in fresh stories that might use “dramatic licence,” according to Palace personnel.
In his book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, producer Sam McAlister last month partially described the process of securing the interview with Prince Andrew and provided specifics about the actual day.
Later this year, the Scoop blockbuster movie, based on that chapter, will go into production.
The screenplay was written by Peter Moffat, a Bafta-winning screenwriter.
Emily Maitlis, meantime, said last week that she will be airing a staged version of the controversial interview.
Before McAlister and Moffat partnered together, it is believed that Blueprint Pictures, the makers of A Very British Scandal and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, had acquired the rights to Maitlis’s narrative.
‘This further exploitation for commercial advantage of a book and now a film of what was, and still, a very painful moment for the family, is unwanted,’ a friend of the duke told The Times.
Not the least of which is that the description of the circumstances leading up to and around the interview seems to have used some theatrical licence.
Unconventionally, sources close to Andrew allege a factual inaccuracy was made in McAlister’s book, raising concerns about “dramatic licence in the recounting” further.
According to McAlister’s account in Scoops, top staff members essentially abandoned the Duke.
No attorneys or other royal employees, she wrote. I had anticipated a crowd of people to manage everything.
A tall white guy enters the room and introduces himself.
He is introduced as Donal McCabe, “the Queen’s communications secretary.” He exits after interacting with a few folks.
However, royal insiders informed the publication that McCabe was there for the whole conversation and even taped it.
If it’s plausible that he was there and I didn’t see him, then they are not mutually exclusive, McAlister said when asked about the conflicting accounts of what happened, according to The Times.
The BBC crew was reportedly “seething” last month at McAlister’s attempt to claim the lion’s share of the credit.
‘There is internal unhappiness,’ a corporation insider said, ‘because it is not the done thing to disclose how you go about these journalistic techniques and also because many people who put a lot of effort into this programme are being written out of the process in the sake of one person’s career.
“Former coworkers find that discouraging.”
Ms. McAlister assisted in setting up the Duke of York’s encounter with Emily Maitlis in November 2019, during which she questioned him about his acquaintance with child molester Jeffrey Epstein.
The interview, which was widely seen as a catastrophe for the duke, saw Andrew stumble while describing his links to Epstein and the since-incarcerated Ghislaine Maxwell.
The majority of viewers thought he didn’t show sympathy for the pair’s victims either.
When Andrew announced his retirement from the spotlight in November 2019, he stated: “Conditions connected to my prior affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein have become a severe interruption to the work of my family.
“I have requested Her Majesty’s permission to withdraw from public service for the foreseeable future,” she said.