Good Morning Britain's Ed Balls claims Prince Andrew 'incriminated himself' during car-crash Newsnight interview in chat with Sam McAlister about Netflix film Scoop

Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls said Prince Andrew 'incriminated himself' during his car crash Newsnight interview in 2019.

The ex-Labour MP was speaking to Sam McAlister, the producer who sealed the interview and whose book on the event was recently turned into the hit Netflix film, Scoop.

The film looks at the story behind Emily Maitlis interview with Andrew, who spoke about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with the resulting furore leading to the Duke stepping down from public life.

Mr Balls told Ms McAlister that Andrew's issues during the interview were not that the questions were 'too hard', it was that he had 'essentially admitted what he had done'.

The ITV presenter said: 'When you are a criminal barrister you are looking for the person in the dock to incriminate themselves to essentially admit what they have done. The problem for him was not that the questions were unreasonable or hard, it was that he incriminated himself from the beginning.'

Ms McAlister agreed with the former shadow chancellor and added: 'If you look at the questions they are very fair. Emily is brilliant and methodological and relentless. But the questions are not aggressive and there is nothing difficult. What's difficult, what's the gotcha, what goes wrong, are his answers.' 

The TV producer, who is played by Billie Piper in the film, also admitted that the interview was an 'extraordinary experience' and claimed Andrew was 'not aware' of what was happening when he gave the answers.

She said: 'He definitely was not aware of what was going on, but I was sitting 15 feet behind and I have two parts of my brain.

'I am a ex-criminal defense barrister, so my lawyer brain was going OMG the prosecution have won the lottery here, because if those statements were false they were very easy to disprove.

'Then my journalist brain is going OMG we've won the lottery here. So, really it was quite hard to keep a poker face.

'So with 50 minutes of that with those kind of answers, I was basically looking at the floor and trying not to make eye contact and it was an extraordinary experience.' 

Based on the book Scoops, by Ms McAlister, the film captures the tension behind booking the royal for the interview, as well as the tension among the cast during the recording.

Maitlis, who is played by Gillian Anderson, said she was not involved in the creation of the film, 'because I think the last thing they want is me peeking around the edges' offering her views.

The Newsnight presenter is currently working on her own version of the story for Amazon called A Very Royal Scandal.

Matilis told Deadline that Netflix has said Scoop is 'based on a fictional account, so I think it goes into different places and it does different things' to the Amazon series.'

The disclaimer used by Netflix for Scoop says: 'This film is based on real events - however certain elements have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.'

In the film, Rufus Sewell plays Andrew, while Keeley Hawes is Andrew's former personal secretary Amanda Thirsk.

Following the Newsnight broadcast in November 2019 and the furore over Andrew's friendship with Epstein, the Duke stepped down from public life.

The interview was dubbed a disaster, with commentators questioning his responses and condemning his unsympathetic tone and lack of remorse over his friendship with Epstein.