‘A bad episode of The Crown’ – Newsnight drama receives mixed reviews

Critics have praised Michael Sheen’s acting in a drama about the Newsnight interview with the Duke of York, but found fault with the script and compared it to Netflix hit The Crown.

The Welsh actor, 55, took on the role of Andrew, opposite Ruth Wilson as former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, depicting the bombshell interview in Prime Video’s A Very Royal Scandal.

The prince’s grilling over his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein was previously brought to life in Netflix’s Scoop earlier this year.

For the new three-part drama, Maitlis served as an executive producer while The Thick Of It actress Joanna Scanlan plays Andrew’s former private secretary, Amanda Thirsk.

Critics gave A Very Royal Scandal between two and four stars out of five, with The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson praising Sheen playing Andrew as “a near-tragic buffoon, a man-child who believes that he is charm personified, but berates his staff with endless” tirades.

She compared it to The Crown, as did the Telegraph’s Anita Singh who called it “a bad episode” of the Netflix royal drama.

There are several royal scenes including with Alex Jennings, who played Edward VIII in The Crown, as the late Queen’s private secretary Sir Edward Young, and Andrew with his family and daughters.

Singh said the recreation of the 2019 interview, which led to Andrew’s withdrawal from public life, “feels like one too many” and claimed Sheen “makes little attempt to physically inhabit the role but leans into Andrew’s petulant, unpleasant side”.

She said the “flashes of humour” during the behind-the-scenes royal moments “are more watchable than the self-congratulatory moments with Maitlis and her BBC colleagues”, but awarded it two out of five.

Nicholson gave it three stars, describing it as “too frictionless for its own good”.

In The Times, Carol Midgley praised Sheen and Wilson for their “hefty, quality performances”, but said the dialogue was “sometimes expositional and cliched”.

Giving it four stars, she said: “Sheen has bursts of brilliance as Andrew – the scenes in which he attempts to banter with the BBC technicians setting up the cameras are inspired, an idiot trying to impress his executioners.

“Is the series self-admiring? Yes, inevitably. But there is much to admire. It is not perfect but it is highly entertaining and, in my opinion, a better piece of television than Scoop.”

The i newspaper’s Rachael Sigee awarded the show only two stars, and said: “The imagined scenes of Prince Andrew and his family mostly amount to an extended episode of The Crown with a murmuring of satire that is never fully realised.

“While a scene featuring the royal press secretaries delivering a scathing interpretation of the ‘frictionless existence’ of their charges hints at a far sharper drama, the drama bottles its chance to depict either the Queen or future King on screen.”

A Very Royal Scandal is on Prime Video.