BBC’s Emily Maitlis exposes scene A Very Royal Scandal boss refused to add

TV journalist Emily Maitlis and Ruth Wilson - the actress who plays her on Amazon Prime's upcoming drama, A Very Royal Scandal - admitted that there were significant omissions from the show.

There's one scene that the pair begged writer Jeremy Brock to include, but they were knocked back. Ruth explained in a Q&A ahead of the show's release: "I really love the toe massaging bit. 'Jeremy, can we put that in, please? Can we put that bit in?' No."

She was referring to Emily uncompromisingly quizzing Prince Andrew about a massage he allegedly received from a young female at the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein's home. Andrew admitted that he'd spent time on the financier's private jet and his private island, as well staying over at his home in Palm Beach, Florida - but said he hadn't seen anything untoward to suggest he was trafficking girls.

He described his home as a "railway station", insisting that people were constantly coming and going - but Emily wasn't convinced. She argued: "Witnesses say they saw many young girls coming and going at the time. There is video footage of Epstein accompanied by young girls and you were there staying in his house, catching up with friends."

She then asked about literary agent John Brockman's account that he'd seen Andrew "getting a foot massage from a young Russian woman" there - something the stuttering prince categorically denied. He claimed he was "absolutely sure" that it never happened.

"That definitely wasn't you getting a foot massage from a Russian girl in Jeffrey Epstein's house?" Emily probed again, only for Andrew to reply with a flat-out "No".

Ruth groaned with disappointment over scenes that couldn't be included in the three-part drama - but the toe massage certainly wasn't the only contested story.

Executive producer Karen Thrussell, who co-produced the show along with Emily, ended up "tearing her hair out" in frustration over the scrutiny by lawyers.

"Every single script got sent to lawyers," she groaned, adding: "Writer Jeremy Brock was [also] pulling his hair out sometimes because there'd be things that that we thought were just really funny, and we would not be allowed to use them!"

There was one amusing reference which did get past the censors - one which characterised King Charles as "Mr. Tampon".

"As we know, that's a matter on public record!" Karen joked.

It dates back to a transcript of a phone call between Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles three months after he'd split from Princess Diana, which was printed in full in People magazine in 1989.

That's just one of the many references viewers can expect to hear about in the new show when it premieres next week.

All three episodes of A Very Royal Scandal are available exclusively on Prime Video from Thursday 19 September.