Hot Picks: Prince Andrew: Banished

Ever since the revelations of Prince Andrew’s involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, the spotlight has been firmly fixed on the senior royal.

The subsequent car-crash Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis only heightened the attention on the prince, widely regarded as the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite son. A civil lawsuit brought against him by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre was settled out of court for a reported £12m.

Royal docs have always been a staple of the international TV landscape, but the subjects tend to be less explosive. However, the Prince Andrew case has spawned a new breed of dark royal films, notably Ghislaine, Prince Andrew And The Paedophile.

To this oeuvre, Blue Ant Studios is adding its own premium doc – feature-length single Prince Andrew: Banished. Commissioned by US streamer Peacock, the high-profile original unpacks the story of how Andrew – formerly regarded as the attractive, beloved son of Queen Elizabeth II and a decorated naval officer – came to disgrace the British monarchy.

“Just as we want to praise the royal family for all of the wonderful things they have done, we also need to be able to give a voice to the victims by doing the job of thoroughly investigating their claims” 

Through interviews with palace insiders, journalists, members of the prince’s social circle, and the legal team that brought the allegations to light, the documentary examines the world of privilege, jealousy, desire and greed that pushed Prince Andrew into a sordid sex-trafficking scandal that threatened to bring down the House of Windsor.

Blue Ant International executive vice-president Solange Attwood says having a doc of this nature is an important complement to the positive royal docs in the distributor’s catalogue.

“Just as we want to praise the royal family for all of the wonderful things they have done, we also need to be able to give a voice to the victims by doing the job of thoroughly investigating their claims,” she says. “Banished delivers a premium, access-driven documentary, thoroughly researched and investigated, giving audiences around the world access to see the evidence and come to their own conclusions.”

Attwood adds that uptake has been “tremendous”, with numerous buyers “snapping it up based on the treatment alone”.