WHILE most of us were still processing Pizza Express, Woking and the curious notion of a prince who doesn’t sweat, the laptop keyboards of TV scriptwriters were already working up a steam.

It didn’t take long, after the credits rolled on Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview, that November evening in 2019, for emails to start pinging between production companies and TV commissioners.

A rather naive attempt at damage limitation, in light of his association with a convicted sex offender, that became a "car crash" TV interview and the catalyst for the Duke’s downfall? It’s a screenwriter’s gift!

So it’s no perhaps surprise that the notorious Newsnight interview has been turned into not one but two films. Much-hyped Netflix drama Scoop got there first. A Very Royal Scandal is currently in the works.

Scoop does of course deliver Prince Andrew’s zingers, but since no dramatisation of that interview could ever be as toe-curling as the real thing, the lines fall a bit flat. The real focus here is the story behind the story, and the women who made it happen; with Billie Piper playing Sam McAlister, the producer who landed the interview, Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis and Keeley Hawes as Prince Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk.

Scoop is a slick production, but way too smug. My main impression, while watching it, was: this is a film that is very pleased with itself. “Smothered by its own sense of self importance” was one critic’s response.

What could have been a gripping newsroom drama felt laborious to watch, with so much style over substance it started to become all about Sam McAlister’s funky leopard print boots and little else. And the comic tone doesn’t sit well, when you consider the young victims Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to sexually abusing.

When these hyped-up dramas of royal/celebrity/political scandals are inevitably churned out (and most of them seem to have Michael Sheen in the cast) I can’t help thinking, isn’t it all a bit rushed? “Cue the prime-time TV drama,” I remember saying, when Coleen Rooney’s online sleuthing was revealed to the world. And lo, Wagatha Christie was milked to the last drop in a mini-series re-creating - and screened just a few months after - the Vardy vs Rooney High Court case, followed by a documentary series and a West End play.

The Prince Andrew interview was featured in a Channel 4 documentary - with Emily Maitlis as executive producer, a role she also has in forthcoming Amazon drama a Very Royal Scandal - and then there was the Prince Andrew Musical (I’m not making this up), billed as a re-imagining of his fall from grace.

Just two years after we went into lockdown, Sky mini-series This England dramatised the first wave of Covid in the UK. It felt way too soon. Last year came Channel 4’s Partygate, a dreadful “satirical docudrama” about Downing Street lockdown parties, which felt like it was written on the back of a beer mat, with cringey school play style acting.

Dramatisations of recent events are the Emperor’s New Clothes. There are exceptions - most recently the excellent Mr Bates Vs the Post Office showed how television drama can highlight injustice and bring about change. And The Crown, particularly in the early seasons, was a compelling time capsule of post-war social history. But dramas based on high profile events often feel like rushed vanity projects. They bask in glossy publicity, with the spotlight on the actors and the red carpet premiere, while the human story - the truth - ends up way down the pecking order. With This England, the hype was Kenneth Branagh in a blond wig playing Boris Johnson. With Scoop, it’s Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis.

Can’t we just take a breather, when a scandal breaks, before it’s served up as a starry mini-series or tacky docudrama? Harry and Meghan on Ice? Phil and Holly the Musical? You read it here first.