Prince Andrew's state of undress is an allusion to "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Emily Maitlis actually owns a whippet called Moody, and she often took him along to work. As a BBC insider told the Daily Mail: "Emily adores that dog, and he was often at her side when she came into the office. It was simply one of those things that happened."
The film is adapted from Sam McAlister’s 2022 book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews; McAlister is a former editor of Newsnight.
Gillian Anderson is two years older than Emily Maitlis, the reporter she portrays.
Romola Garai (Esme Wren) had earlier appeared in an unrelated film of the same title: Scoop (2006).
When Prince Andrew says that he can't understand the fuss about Epstein because he knew Jimmy Savile far better, he is referring to a British television presenter whose well-known children's programme "Jim'll Fix It" ran for more than three decades. After his death, hundreds of allegations emerged that he had sexually abused children who appeared on the show as well as youngsters he visited in hospitals.
One of the editors in the BBC office is portrayed by Richard Goulding, who played Prince Harry across two series of ITV's The Windsors (2016).
Charity Wakefield, who portrays Princess Beatrice, was approximately 42 years old during filming, whereas the princess was only 31 years old in 2019.
The photograph of Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell shown on television is the original image, but it was modified with AI to somewhat face‑swap Rufus Sewell's likeness onto Andrew's face. The same deepfake technology was also used to digitally alter Giuffre's and Maxwell's faces slightly, making them subtly different from their real identities.
Sam has Jessica Valenti's book, Sex Object, on her desk when Amanda rings to agree to the interview.
