Interview: From Newsnight to Netflix - Sam McAlister on the true story behind ‘Scoop’

Sam McAlister, one of the UK’s most compelling news presenters & correspondents, is the former BBC Newsnight producer who secured the now-infamous Prince Andrew interview — a moment that made global headlines. 

Her extraordinary journey has leapt from the newsroom to the big screen, or rather, Netflix. 

As executive producer of Scoop, the film adaptation of her bestselling book, McAlister played a hands-on role in every stage, from script development to casting, ensuring the story stayed true to both journalism and the real-life events behind it. 

In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, she reveals the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to one of the most explosive royal interviews in history, the challenges of seeing her life portrayed on screen, and the lessons in truth-telling and resilience that shaped both the broadcast and the movie.

Q: The Prince Andrew–Epstein interview became one of the most talked-about moments in modern journalism, later inspiring the Netflix film ‘Scoop’. What first drew you to pursue that story?

Sam McAlister: “Well, the story had always been in the public consciousness, but only a little bit, and my job at Newsnight was really to pursue interviews with people who were in the public profile – world leaders, members of royalty, actors, people who were working in politics. 

“In this particular circumstance, the story of Prince Andrew, at the stage at which I first started dealing with his people, which was in October 2018, really wasn’t that big of a deal. He was kind of a forgotten prince, and the tale of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was also somewhat forgotten.

“Over the period of the year and one month that I was dealing with Buckingham Palace, it became the biggest story in the country and certainly almost the world. It was one of those classic cases of something that starts with your team at Newsnight saying, ‘That’s not very Newsnight.’ 

“We turned it down twice, and then over the period of that year it became the negotiation of my life, because everyone in the world wanted that particular interview. 

“He had so many big questions to answer about his friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but also the specific allegations – which he denies to this day – against him for sexual acts committed against Virginia Giuffre.”

Q: Negotiating the interview that would later inspire a feature film must have required unique tactics. How did you earn the trust of Prince Andrew’s team?

Sam McAlister: “I think that really honesty is the best policy. It’s quite rare in negotiation for people to be blunt and honest. I mean, in the film adaptation of my book Scoop on Netflix, I call him ‘Randy Andy' to his face – and I actually did that in this negotiation. Effectively, honesty is the best policy.

“Over the many months that I was dealing with Amanda Thirsk, who was his chief of staff at the Palace, and then with him personally – face to face in a tiny room with Emily Maitlis, the presenter, Stuart McLean, the deputy editor, and a surprise guest, his daughter Princess Beatrice – in those very, very important moments of dealing with someone, you have to earn their trust quickly. 

“Over the time I’d been dealing with Amanda and all the people involved in this, I had just been blunt – not rude, not disrespectful, but blunt.

“This was an interview about Jeffrey Epstein; there would be no conditions, and Newsnight was looking to have the definitive narrative from him – his version of events of these incredibly serious accusations, and the problem of this friendship with this man who was now dead but had been a prolific sex offender. 

“It really was a matter of professional honesty without blurring the lines between truth and trying to get the interview that you want, because ultimately you know what a prize it is journalistically, so you have to make sure you don’t cross that line.”

Q: Sitting in the room as that now-famous interview unfolded, what was the moment that shocked you the most?

Sam McAlister: “What usually happens is you do a briefing call – not usually with the actual person that’s doing it – and then by the time you get to the interview itself, they’ve cleaned it up completely. This was the one time that didn’t happen.

“We spoke to him on the Monday; he revealed lots of the things he revealed on camera on the Thursday when the interview happened. I never for one second thought he would replicate those things in the public domain. 

“The real shock for me, sitting in that room 15 feet behind his chair, was the fact that he put Pizza Express on the record, the fact that he said he had a condition where he didn’t sweat at the time – the fact that he put those into the public domain was the thing that was really shocking to me, because I assumed he would not put any of that on camera.”

This exclusive interview with Sam McAlister was conducted by Megan Lupton of The Motivational Speakers Agency.