Amazon Prime Video recently released the third chapter in their British scandal anthology series. A Very Royal Scandal starring Ruth Wilson (Mrs. Wilson) and Michael Sheen (Gallowglass, Good Omens) is a dramatization of Prince Andrew’s disastrous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview. The three-part limited series focuses more on the interview and the fallout within the UK than the other aspects of the Epstein scandal.
Earlier this year, Netflix also released its own dramatization of Prince Andrew’s troubles (Scoop) plus the final season of The Crown which has documented Queen Elizabeth II’s reign from the 1950s through 1990s. The Tudors, The White Princess, The White Queen, and The Spanish Princess also center on the troubled lives of past British monarchs. MASTERPIECE has also featured both biographical and fictionalized versions of the royal family. In 2017 the King Charles III limited series presented an alternate history take of events after Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Atlantic Crossing, Victoria, and Wolf Hall take place earlier in history, but all have royal family scandals as major plotlines.
GBH Drama interviewed Executive Producer Karen Thrussell about the production process, why audiences love royal dramas, and an update on rumors about a MASTERPIECE favorite possibly returning.
The previous seasons of the British scandal anthology — A Very British Scandal and A Very English Scandal — have a different tone. “The thing about scandals is that they do have a lightness of touch and a wit about them,” Thrussel said. Prince Andrew’s distance from the lives of ordinary people and a journalist’s quest to uncover as much of the truth as possible drives the drama in these three episodes.
A Very Royal Scandal is based on one chapter of Emily Matlis’ autobiography Airhead, which recounts several of her most famous BBC Newsnight interviews and investigations. The series had the blessing of Matlis, plus people who worked with her. “We went into Newsnight and chatted to Stewart Maclean, one of the Newsnight producers, and he showed us around the studios,” Thrussell said.
Americans may have no political connections to the British Royal family, but still flock to television series and movies where royal affairs, power grabs, rivalries, and other intrigue are the driving forces of events. American viewers of A Very Royal Scandal already have some background knowledge from news headlines. US journalists featured stories about the BBC Newsnight interview, as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has implicated American politicians, business leaders, and celebrities. Virginia Giuffre’s account, plus updates on the legal proceedings for Epstein’s accomplice Gislane Maxwell, have also been featured.
“The Crown has depicted the Royal Family for years and it was interesting to see behind the doors there because sometimes the Royal Family and their public face doesn’t feel like real people,” Thrussell said. “It’s quite interesting to get behind who these people really are. I think that this particular story… will go down in British history. Prince Andrew lost all his titles after this interview. That almost goes with the abdication of King Edward, and Wallis Simspon and Edward. It’s such a dramatic interview and it’s one of the best pieces of TV that wasn’t drama that was on, because it’s just a total car crash and fascinating to watch.”
The most difficult part of the production process was not Wilson or Sheen and other cast members working with accent coaches and matching the appearance of their real-life counterparts. “Recreating Buckingham Palace is actually quite hard because of those ducal high ceilings,” Thrussell said. “We used Wilton Hall to film in, which has lovely high ceilings and lots of gilt. The palaces are all, they’re quite red and gold and quite distinctive and we did actually go for a color palette where we showed the Newsnight and all that sort of thing: we showed the set as blue tones, and then we showed the palace as red and gold. So we always had that color palette in mind when we were filming.”
Although the episodes feature Prince Andrew and others discussing their viewpoints on what might have happened, A Very Royal Scandal avoids treating the situation as a subject of humor. “We did a lot of research into what’s in the public domain about what Andrew’s like,” Thrussell said. “On the royal side, it wasn’t a particularly suitable thing to have somebody from the Royal Family on the team, but we had a royal advisor and spoke to somebody who knew Andrew previously. We did not want to poke fun and be particularly mean to a character when we shouldn’t at all. When he comes in and tells his staff to ‘fuck off’, we looked into that and he does do that and there’s proof.”
The episodes include the publicly available facts of Prince Andrew’s case and how his family reacted, but do not presume he is guilty nor do they depict graphic details of the accusations. “We would never focus exclusively on Epstein because that is just too horrific. With Prince Andrew there is a lot we don’t know and we can’t prove exactly what happened. It’s also very much about journalism and speaking truth to power and things like that. We have a lot of respect for the rest of the Royal Family and as people,” Thrussell said. “For instance, I hope Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice come across well because they are children who — it’s not their fault that their father did whatever he’s guilty of, which we don’t know what he’s exactly guilty of, because he’s never been to court.”
This careful consideration is part of the cultural difference between many in the UK and American audiences. The monarchy and its representatives are an active presence in UK society and politics, and public opinion is divided on their actions. While UK comedians have referenced the monarchy in their jokes, there are legal limits to what can be said in the media. UK law has a much lower standard for libel and slander against public figures and celebrities than the US. Blueprint Pictures, the production company behind A Very Royal Scandal, did not want any cause for the Palace, Giuffre, or other victims to file legal complaints. These legal considerations are often why many creatives take the safer route of dramatizing Royal scandals once everyone is long dead as the dead cannot be defamed.
What’s the next scandal or story from Blueprint Pictures? “I think we probably wouldn’t do a royal one next, but we need to do something global and that appeals to everyone,” Thrussell said. “It’s difficult to find scandals that feel modern, but that aren’t too distasteful. The BBC have commissioned some more Scandal anthology scripts, so we are a quarter of the way there with those,” Thrussell said. “We’ve hopefully got a Jez Butterworth script that we’re hopefully doing only next year. We have lots of things that are just in the pipeline at the moment, which [we’re] just waiting to hear [what] will go. Hopefully, in the new year we should have something else up and running.” Blueprint also still has the permission to dramatize other events from Matlis’ book. “It would be fun to do a newsroom drama, which would center on a character, perhaps not Emily, but a character like Emily,” Thrussell said. “She has her bag packed by the door in case she gets a call from her editor to dash off somewhere. I thought that perhaps might be a good returnable drama.”
Some very observant MASTERPIECE fans may recognize Thrussell’s name from the opening or closing production credits on several fan-favorite series such as the 2000’s Marple adaptation, Poirot, and of course, Poldark. This fall marks five years since the last Poldark episode aired and there have been several rounds of online rumors about a reboot. Thrussell left Poldark’s production company Mammoth Screen, but remains friends with her former coworkers and would board a reunion if one was greenlighted. “I would love to, because nobody has ever completed all of the Poldark novels and I mean, I personally would love to do that, but we just need to get people to say that they want to see it, I suppose, and get the commissioners to do it and then obviously talk the actors back into it.”
A Very Royal Scandal is currently streaming on Prime Video as season 3 of A Very British Scandal.
