Netflix Scoop's Sam McAlister addresses 'rivalry' with Emily Maitlis amid Prime Video series

Sam McAlister, the producer who set up Prince Andrew's 'car crash' 2019 Newsnight interview, has spoken out about Emily Maitlis' 'rival' TV series which is currently in the works.

Scoop, which dropped on Netflix on Friday April 5, is currently the streamer's most-watched film in the UK. Inspired by Sam's memoir Scoops, it tells the story of what went into securing the now-infamous interview.

Former BBC journalist Maitlis quizzed the disgraced Duke of York for the first time over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein during the 50-minute Newsnight special. Its aftermath saw Prince Andrew step back from public duties with Queen Elizabeth II also stripping him of his military titles and patronages.

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Scoop stars Gillian Anderson and Billie Piper as Maitlis and McAlister, while Rufus Sewell portrays Prince Andrew. Maitlis has not been involved in the film, but is an executive producer for an Amazon Prime Video series about the topic.

On Monday (April 8), Sam joined Kate Garraway and Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain to chat about Scoop. On why the interview itself was so effective, former defence barrister Sam said: "If you look at the questions, they're very fair. Emily is brilliant and methodical and relentless.

"The questions are no 'gotchas' - they're not aggressive, there's nothing difficult. What's difficult, what's the 'gotcha,' what goes wrong are his terrible answers. He had a fair chance to say something that might've convinced the court of public opinion..."

Kate then asked Sam what it was like going from 'behind the scenes' to climbing the Netflix charts. Sam admitted she thought