Prince Andrew to be lampooned in satirical musical

Prince Andrew will be the subject of a satirical TV musical in the latest season of shows from British broadcaster Channel 4.

The Queen’s second son stood down from royal duties after a disastrous interview in November 2019 discussing his ties with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a special BBC Newsnight program.

Channel 4 said the interview, widely regarded as a public relations catastrophe for the Duke of York, would be “reimagined” as part of the musical.

It is the second dramatic outing for the interview, after it emerged in July that it would also be turned into a film. To be called Scoop, the movie will tell the story of how Newsnight producers secured and pulled off the 2019 interview.

Shooting begins on Scoop in November.

After the TV broadcast aired, critics tore into Andrew for appearing to show no empathy for the abused victims of Epstein, who killed himself in prison in August 2019.

Comedian Kieran Hodgson will lead a cast of comics in Prince Andrew: The Musical, a one-hour program described as a “satirical send-up of the life and times” of the Duke of York set to a musical score.

The show is part of a 40-year anniversary season of shows called Truth or Dare for Britain’s fourth terrestrial TV broadcaster, which launched in 1982.

It has not yet been announced exactly when it will air.

“It will pile more embarrassment on Andrew,” royal commentator Robert Jobson told Britain’s Sun newspaper of the musical.

“His public life is already over. This almost feels like kicking a dog when it’s down.”

But Channel 4 commissioning editor Cimran Shah said: “We shy away from nothing.”

Andrew has been a feature in British headlines for years due to his marriage and divorce with Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson. Songs in the upcoming musical will include My Profiterole, about how Andrew wooed the Duchess of York with the cream-filled treats.

But he has tried to stay out of the public spotlight after reaching a multimillion-pound settlement earlier this year with Virginia Giuffre, who filed a US lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault when she was 17.

Andrew was stripped of his honorary military titles in January and told he can no longer use the title “his royal highness”.

-with AAP

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