A Very Royal Scandal

The first thing I need to complain about is the cinematography. For some reason the film is presented in a letterbox format, so we have black bars above and below the picture. The other thing, certainly in the first episode, is that many of the scenes are made in darkness. Maybe it's intentional, but it really makes it hard to see what's going on. Not well lit.

So far as the acting is concerned, as usual, Michael Sheen inhabits the character of Andrew very well. Not a nice man, we're led to believe.

Emily Maitlis, played by Ruth Wilson, is also believable, though we don't really get an in-depth understanding of her character. She also has adopted a weird kind of accent, a cross between Miranda Hart and Maggie Thatcher.

Watched all three, back to back on the day it dropped on amazon. Amazing fantastic brilliant was my opinion of this excellent beautifully constructed drama. Ruth wilson as Emily Matis, and Michael sheen as Andrew were as they always are fantastic in there roles as was all the supporting roles with for me a special nod for the actor who played the Queens Private secretary. I personally also thought it was better than the BBC version they did a little while ago although that was also very good. So I highly recommended this amazon three part drama. Please don't think because you watched the original interview, that's it . Because it's far more than that.

Obviously huge chunks of this docudrama are fictionalised as it portrays what was going on behind the scenes leading up to, during and after the controversial BBC interview with Prince Andrew. We see a lot of Andrew's family and Royal advisors and Emily Maitlis' family and colleagues at the BBC (By the way, I think this is far better dramatisation than the recent version starring Billie Piper which was told through the eyes of a BBC researcher.) Michael Sheen must be one of, if not the best character actors of his time. He does not particularly resemble some of the characters he portrays but with excellent input from wardrobe and make up and his ability to deliver lines with the mannerisms of these people he is utterly convincing in the part. It is thus the case with his portrayal of Prince Andrew. Ruth Wilson is very good to in the role of Emily Maitlis.

I think it was an appropriate we do not see any of the Royal family other than Andrew's immediate family portrayed on screen. Mummy and Charles speak to Andrew over the phone and we do not see or hear them. We do have a lot of fictionalised dialogue between Andrew, his daughters and ex-wife Fergie. And some rather cringing scenes with Andrew's staff especially Amanda Thirsk played by Joanna Scanlon. This we should take with a pinch of salt and not as a historical account. We can assume that Emily Maitlis is happy with the depiction of her input into the interview and family life as she was plugging the drama on GMB the day before it dropped on Amazon Prime.

I binge watched all 3 episodes because it is such a good dramatisation not because I wanted to know how it ended.

One star docked for Ruth Wilson's Elizabeth Holmes Theranos CEO type voice. What were they thinking? It was so obviously put on and fake. Took me right out of the drama. Is she angling to play Margaret Thatcher in future?

I loved the actress who played Sarah Ferguson and Michael Sheen is always good, but when I first heard he was playing Prince Andrew I was really surprised. I just didn't see how he could pull it off, but wow he did... And without a silly voice! He really captured the look and feel of a man in turmoil. That embarrassed type of anger when someone knows they have been caught out. That is skill.

Hmmm. Time, I think, for the team behind this Scandal series to move on. It's clear now that they're never going to equal, much less top, the brilliance of A Very English Scandal, in which Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw turned the Jeremy Thorpe story into a riotous and riveting frolic. The sequel - A Very British Scandal - was an undercooked and ultimately unsatisfying account of the sordid saga of the Duchess of Argyll. But there was every reason to expect a return to form with this account of the bottomless sleazefest that engulfed the Duke of York. Unfortunately, A Very Royal Scandal is even more timid and turgid than the Argyll affair. I can't help wondering if those involved just can't bring themselves to really go for it when the subject is royalty. It's interesting, by way of example, that both the Queen and Prince Charles are afforded a degree of dignity and immunity, in that they remain off screen throughout, their decisions and dictates delivered by envoys and fixers. Yet they are really as much a part of the story as the Duke of York, and they are engaged in an epic battle to save the monarchy from ruin. And if you can invent scenes and dialogue for Andy, Fergie, Bea and Eugenie, then why not Liz and Charles too? Letting them off the hook is the main reason this Royal Scandal looks continually lame. It is also poorly served by the casting. Michael Sheen gives what is in many ways a well judged and finely wrought performance as Andrew, but he still doesn't quite pull off the arrogance and the obliviousness. And Ruth Wilson is undone by an ill-judged and annoying vocal impression of Emily Maitliss, that somehow comes off as more like Fenella Fielding in Carry On Screaming. Claire Rushbrook is also a poor choice as Fergie, which even the director seems to acknowledge by shooting her mostly from behind, or in profile, or in soft focus at the edge of frame. There's enough schadenfreude.to keep it mildly interesting, but it never fully takes flight. Except maybe at the very end, when Randy Andy, shamed and banished, wonders what he's supposed to do now. Sir Edward Young, played by Alex Jennings, tells him: "live with the consequences of your actions". The preceding three hours could have done with a bit more of the same blunt honesty.