Michael Sheen’s performance gives ‘A Very Royal Scandal’ a satirical edge

Michael Sheen plays Prince Andrew in Prime Video’s A Very Royal Scandal. His impression is incredibly different from Rufus Sewell’s in Scoop on Netflix; Sheen’s performance has a far more satirical edge.

At times, he is emotionally invested in the story, and at others, he’s a farce, calling the people around him “fatties” and cackling. A Very Royal Scandal is the successor to A Very English Scandal (2018). This iteration of the iconic Prince Andrew interview mainly follows Emily Maitlis (Ruth Wilson), the interviewer on BBC Newsnight. Emily Maitlis is also the executive producer of the limited series.

The center of Netflix’s adaptation of Scoop is BBC booker Sam McAlister, played by Billie Piper. It follows the events from McAlister’s point of view in her published memoir, which pits McAlister as the mastermind of the whole ordeal. In Prime Video’s limited series, Clare Calbraith plays Sam McAlister and is given far less credit. The character’s first introduction on Amazon portrays her as flimsy and less serious. 

BBC interviewer Emily Maitlis is portrayed on Netflix by Gillian Anderson as quite stoic. On Prime, Ruth Wilson gives Maitlis humanity with an underlying severity. The differences in the portrayals of these characters brings my attention to what drama lies behind the scenes between these two powerful women in real life. It is impossible not to compare Netflix’s film to Amazon’s limited series as they cover the same events and are released in quick succession. 

Michael Sheen gives Prince Andrew a more fallible and human personality than Rufus Sewell’s. Some of the authentic answers the real Prince Andrew gave in the BBC interview are repurposed in both dramatizations. In A Very Royal Scandal, these lines are given comedic timing to exacerbate their ridiculous nature. 

It’s almost hard to watch because it’s all so ridiculous. It’s hard to fathom how out of touch Prince Andrew is to think he was perfectly defendable throughout this interview. It’s giving narcissism. 

Watching the “firm” go down in flames with this interview is fun, but it is also infuriating that so little came of it all. Boohoo, Prince Andrew got demoted. Boohoo, he’s not an official royal anymore. What about jail time? What about legal liability? A Very Royal Scandal deals with the interview’s aftermath in the third episode, but with lackluster results.

A Very Royal Scandal has more investigation into Prince Andrew’s daughters’ ideas and opinions regarding whether their father is guilty, an intriguing perspective we have only been able to guess. Princess Beatrice (Honor Swinton Bryne) and Princess Eugenie (Sofia Oxenham) are portrayed as trusting and naive about the whole thing, whereas Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson (Claire Rushbrook), is much more knowledgeable about the relationship with Jeffrey Weinstein. 

I found Bryne’s portrayal of Beatrice a bit unfeeling and too self-involved. However, considering the character’s societal position, perhaps that’s an accurate portrayal of the royal family throughout this scandal. It would have been more comforting if there was a dramatization of two daughters confronting their father, but alas, we’re given the meek understanding that they’d rather stand by an accused rapist than tip the boat. 

Yet, A Very Royal Scandal feels like watching Titanic if it were edited down and marketed as a comedy because everything about these events plays like a disastrous shipwreck while a violinist plays “Pop Goes the Weasel.”