If the royals weren’t going through enough problems at the moment, another one is about to be added in the form of Netflix’s Scoop. It contains a scene that will perhaps be the most-discussed of the year, in the form of Prince Andrew being naked. Granted, he is only shown from behind – and Rufus Sewell, the actor who plays Andrew, is in good shape (perhaps more so than the actual duke) – but it is still a jaw-dropping moment.
Perhaps blessedly, Andrew’s nudity comes in a bathtub vignette, as the Duke disconsolately watches the disastrous Newsnight interview that he so fatefully conducted with Emily Maitlis in 2019, rather than a sex scene. Yet the rest of the drama does not spare him at all. Sewell mentioned that one of his models for his portrayal of Andrew was Ricky Gervais’s David Brent. Brent, however, comes across as a more sympathetic and likeable character. The Duke is shown to be a model of egocentricity and self-absorption. At one point, he remarks ‘I don’t know why everyone’s so obsessed by my friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. I knew Jimmy Savile far better.’
The drama, co-scripted by barrister-turned-screenwriter Peter Moffat, is full of embarrassing moments for Andrew, who is not shown in a favourable or even particularly balanced light. He is not the lead character – that would be the producer Sam McAlister, on whose memoir the story is based – but he is certainly the one who dominates.
There are many details that seem exaggerated or unbelievable, but are in fact drawn from real life, not least Andrew’s childlike obsession with his teddy bear collection, and his blithely ignorant comment to Maitlis, after his grilling has finished, that ‘I thought that all went very well’. There will be those who find fault with Scoop as a film. However, Sewell’s portrayal of the Duke as a blithely limited man who is impervious to the dangers of the situation that he has found himself in, is far more damning than anything from The Crown. Even Alex Jennings’s portrayal of the Duke of Windsor had nuance, whereas ‘Randy Andy’ here is depicted as someone who is arrogant and out of touch to the nth degree.
In recent weeks, the Duke has been seen out and about, most notoriously leading the family into King Constantine’s memorial service in Windsor while grinning inanely. His presence at the Easter service at St George’s Chapel suggests that, with the royals going through severe difficulties, his apparent excommunication from ‘the Firm’ has been largely rescinded. Yet if his family sit down to watch Scoop this weekend, medicinal gin-and-tonics quivering in their hands, they are likely to wonder whether his return to public life has been such a good idea after all.
Comments