Former BBC producer Sam McAlister – who labored on notorious Prince Andrew interview – pokes enjoyable at Newsnight after ‘fall out’ with Emily Maitlis

Former BBC producer Sam McAlister, who helped secure the famous Prince Andrew interview with Emily Maitlis  has taken a swipe at Newsnight.

The journalist, from Guildford, produced Newsnight’s ‘car crash’ interview with Prince Andrew in 2019, where he was questioned about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. 

Among a series of bizarre claims, the Duke of York infamously claimed he ‘could not sweat’ and denied he could have slept with teenager Virginia Giuffre because he was at ‘Pizza Express in Woking’ at the time.

Today the journalist shared a snapshot of her LinkedIn job search which said: ‘Jobs recommended for you,’ before it came up with the role of ‘Chief Presenter at Newsnight’,

McAlister posted the screenshot on X before writing the caption: ‘Lolz.’ 

Lauren McGaun, a producer at Newsnight wrote: ‘Go for it,’ followed by laughing crying emojis, to which McAlister responded: ‘That would be a turn up.’

Another user penned: ‘Lol,’ while a third said: It’d put the viewing figures up.’ 

During McAlister’s stint as a producer for Newsnight, she secured interviews with the likes of former United States President, Bill Clinton, and owner of X, Elon Musk. 

McAlister’s story is explored in Netflix‘s Scoop and Amazon’s A Very Royal Scandal,  which dramatises the behind-the-scenes action in the build up to the interview, as well as fallout from the hour of television that essentially put an end to Andrew’s time as a working member of the Royal Family.

Ms McAlister, who is portrayed by Billie Piper in Netflix’s drama, has previously accused presenter and interviewer Ms Maitlis of failing to properly acknowledge her pivotal role in securing the infamous interview with the late Queen’s ‘favourite son’.

The ex-BBC journalist, played by Gillian Anderson in Scoop, was criticised for giving an in-depth interview explaining how the scoop came about, but failing to mention McAlister, who convinced the Prince, 64, to take part.

Ms Maitlis, who earned £325,000 a year from the BBC, was accused of being ‘unfair’ on long-serving Ms McAlister, who is understood to have been paid less one tenth of that amount.

The dispute stemmed from an interview Ms Maitlis, 53, and Newsnight’s former editor Esme Wren gave Radio Times in the July following the bombshell broadcast.  

In the piece – headlined ‘How we did it, Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis and Esme Wren on the Prince Andrew interview that shocked the world’ – Ms Wren said: ‘We delivered a quite exceptional piece of journalism.’

But Ms McAlister was not mentioned once, despite her forging the relationship with Prince Andrew’s aide Amanda Thirsk and meeting her at Buckingham Palace to secure the interview.

‘While those who work behind the scenes don’t always get credit, for Emily to go out there and not mention Sam in such a high-profile interview seems pretty unfair and wrong,’ said one former colleague of the two women. 

‘Emily was on a significant salary and then you had Sam grafting behind the scenes on about £30,000 a year. Without Sam there would have been no Prince Andrew interview. It’s as simple as that.’

As for how she felt overlooked, a source said: ‘Sam tried to laugh at it. It seemed deeply baffling that two women would not mention another, far more junior woman in an interview where they were talking about how the interview came about.’

But friends of Ms McAlister told The Daily Mail in 2023 that the snub was a factor in her decision to leave the BBC in 2021 to go freelance and become a champion of behind-the scenes production staff.

In 2022, she released the book Scoop telling her version of how the interview was secured – which was picked up by Netflix and turned into the drama.

But Ms McAlister’s book and film deals led to backlash from her former BBC colleagues, who claimed she was attempting to steal all the glory, The Telegraph reported in 2022.

BBC sources were said to be ‘seething’ after the book’s publication, accusing Ms McAlister of taking the lion’s share of credit for a team effort and reducing key figures in the story, including Ms Maitlis, to peripheral figures in her narrative.

A BBC insider said at the time: ‘There is internal disappointment because it is not the done thing to expose how you go about these journalistic practices and also because a lot of people who did a considerable amount of work on this show are being written out of the process in pursuit of one person’s career. Former colleagues find that disappointing.’

Ms Maitlis has always refused to comment on the rift. Sources say she was even invited to the book launch in 2022 – but didn’t show up.

One said: ‘Everyone in the book was of course invited but Emily wasn’t there.’ Some sources believe even subtle digs are made throughout the film.

One insider said: ‘Viewers won’t notice it but there are a few conversations that take place that, if you are aware of Emily being accused of trying to take credit from Sam, then you might notice things aren’t all well.’ 

Now Ms Maitlis is preparing a rival drama about the car-crash interview. She is executive producing an upcoming three-part series for Amazon Studios. 

Titled A Very Royal Scandal, it stars Ruth Wilson as Ms Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew.

Ms McAllister previously appeared on This Morning to discuss her experience working on both the interview and the film.

She described how tough it was securing the interview, saying: ‘I was a complete underdog on booking content because who in their right mind, let’s be frank, would want to go on unless you’re a minister, or you’re selling a book or a movie.

‘Why would you go and take that risk, right? So my job was persuading people to go on against their interest basically. So I spent my time trying to get them to do something they probably shouldn’t have done.’

Discussing how she felt when securing the interview, she revealed: ‘I’d been dealing with a palace for a year. And I think the thing that I love about this movie…is I’m an ordinary woman who ended up in an extraordinary situation. And of course, everyone’s seen that interview. But this is the 95 per cent before that.’

She continued: ‘So it all started a year prior, and it was only on the Monday so we’re now 13 months in the Monday when I met Prince Andrew face to face with Emily and Stuart with with his daughter sitting next to him in Buckingham Palace…It was only then on the one day I thought this could actually happen.

‘And on Tuesday morning, they said yes. And I honestly I dropped my phone. I could not believe that they had said yes.’

Describing the biggest curveball of the day, Sam told This Morning it was when Prince Andrew was accompanied into the interview with his daughter Princess Beatrice.

‘Can you imagine you’ve gone to talk to a Prince and you’re in Buckingham Palace… and you’re talking about difficult subjects and then he brings his daughter?’ she said?

‘I mean, it was the curveball of curveballs. I’m not easily disconcerted, but I have to admit, even I was impressed by that as a curveball,’ she added.