Why new Netflix drama Scoop contains hidden ‘slights’ about Emily Maitlis: Inside the feud between BBC star and her £30k-a-year producer who says SHE was the driving force behind infamous Prince Andrew interview

It’s the film that promises to lift the lid on how Prince Andrew’s excruciating BBC interview with Emily Maitlis came to air.

And while the now infamous cross-examination over the disgraced Duke’s car crash gripped the nation in November 2019, a secret feud was brewing behind the scenes.

Not that you would know from watching the new trailer for the upcoming Netflix film Scoop.

It opens with Gillian Anderson in the role of Maitlis, who moves on to the broadcast at Buckingham Palace, interspersed with scenes of Billie Piper as Sam McAlister, the producer who negotiated the booking of Prince Andrew, who weaves through the BBC’s busy newsroom hast.

Co-starring Newsnight’s former editor Esme Wren, played by Atonement’s Romola Garai, Scoop looks to tell the story of determined career women working together to deliver what has been dubbed the scoop of the decade.

Behind the scenes, however, to describe the rift as a David versus Goliath situation would be an understatement.

Sam McAlister tells ITV’s This Morning how she helped secure the interview with Prince Andrew

McAlister is said to earn around a tenth of Maitlis’ annual salary of £325,000. While Maitlis would arrange taxis for work trips, McAlister hopped on buses from the BBC’s central London headquarters to Buckingham Palace for meetings with Amanda Thirsk, Prince Andrew’s former private secretary, played by Keeley Hawes.

The disparity is perhaps all the more glaring for single mother McAlister after Maitlis gave an in-depth interview to Radio Times in 2020 explaining how the story came about – with McAlister not mentioned once.

In the piece – titled ‘How we did it, Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis and Esme Wren on the Prince Andrew interview that shocked the world’, Wren, now editor of Channel 4 News, said: ‘We have delivered quite an exceptional piece of journalism.

A former colleague said: ‘While those working behind the scenes don’t always get the credit, it seems quite unfair and wrong for Emily to go public and not mention Sam in such a high-profile interview. Emily had a significant salary and Sam allowed Sam to earn around £30,000 a year behind the scenes. Without Sam there would have been no interview with Prince Andrew. It’s that simple.’

Speaking about how she felt overlooked, a source said: “Sam tried to laugh it off. It seemed very baffling that two women would not mention another, much younger woman in an interview where they were talking about how the interview came about.”

But friends of McAlister say the omission was a factor in her decision to leave the BBC in 2021 to go freelance and champion behind-the-scenes production staff.

While at the BBC, McAlister reportedly spent months building a relationship with Thirsk before holding a series of meetings with her at Buckingham Palace.

In her book on which the film Scoop is based – about the first time she met Andrew, played by Rufus Sewell in the film, McAlister wrote: ‘I hadn’t slept a wink all weekend. I had prepared, read and talked to people who had met Prince Andrew to gauge how to approach him. Then I had rehearsed possible questions in my head, thought about what the sticking points would be, and played every possible calibration and option.”

Maitlis, 53, has always refused to comment on the rift.

Sources say she was even invited to the 2022 book launch but didn’t show up.

One said: ‘Everyone in the book was invited of course, but Emily wasn’t there.’

Some sources believe there are even subtle digs being made throughout the film, which is set to release on April 5.

Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis in a mock Newsnight studio for the Netflix drama

Emily Maitlis, appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show on BBC1, is making her own show based on the interview, A Very Royal Scandal

An insider said: ‘Viewers won’t notice, but there are a few conversations taking place and knowing Emily is trying to take credit for Sam, you might notice that things aren’t all going well.’

After leaving the BBC, McAlister quickly began making money from her scoop, leaving Maitlis in her wake.

Now Maitlis is making her own show based on the interview, A Very Royal Scandal, currently in production for Netflix rival Amazon Prime. Since money is no object for both streaming giants, they have been competing to find the ultimate Hollywood cast for their adaptations.

Scoop has an A-list cast – according to friends, McAlister is ‘over the moon’ to have landed The Crown’s Anderson – while A Very Royal Scandal has Hollywood’s Michael Sheen as its prince. He recently said he doesn’t want his portrayal to be a “hatchet job”: “It’s inevitable that you want to bring humanity to the character.”

Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson will take on the role of Maitlis and The Thick Of It’s Joanna Scanlan will play Thirsk in A Very Royal Scandal.

As for the scripts, Scoop features British playwright and screenwriter Peter Moffat and Philip Martin, who worked on seven episodes of The Crown in 2017, as director.

Maitlis has arguably gone one step further with her three-part series, recruiting Bafta-nominated director Julian Jarrol, who helmed The Crown and worked on Sky Atlantic’s drama This England.

Then again, this could all be academic if Maitlis doesn’t manage to get her version, which is still in production, to the screen before Scoop’s April release date. Hard to believe that audiences want to see the exact same story again a month later.

Back at Broadcasting House, Maitlis has received solid support from her former Newsnight colleagues, with some of them apparently resenting McAlister for ‘daring to put himself out there’ in the whole affair.

One can only imagine their anger as Scoop triumphs and McAlister gets the sweetest revenge.